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☆ Biden administration awards $2.8 billion in grants for electric vehicle battery manufacturing
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Emma Kinery | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

President Joe Biden announced $2.8 billion in grants for 20 companies to produce batteries for electric vehicles in the United States. The grants are being allocated through the Department of Energy with funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to companies in 12 states. Increasing manufacturing capacity of in the United States has been a priority for the Biden administration. In all, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act allocated more than $135 billion toward electric vehicle manufacturing. "This is critically important because the future of vehicles is electric, but the battery is a key part of that electric vehicle and right now 75% of that battery manufacturing is done in China."

☆ Biden awards $2.8 billion for projects to boost electric vehicle battery manufacturing
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks to highlight electric vehicle manufacturing in America, during a visit to the Detroit Auto Show, September 14, 2022. The Biden administration on Wednesday said it will award $2.8 billion in grants for projects to expand U.S. manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles and domestic mineral production. The announcement is part of the administration's broader push to transition the U.S. away from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles. "Producing advanced batteries and components here at home will accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels to meet the strong demand for electric vehicles, creating more good-paying jobs across the country," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. The projects will support developing enough lithium to supply about 2 million EVs per year, developing enough graphite to supply about 1.2 million EVs per year and producing enough nickel to supply about 400,000 EVs per year, according to the Energy Department.

☆ U.S. to provide millions in funding for tidal energy and river current systems
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Anmar Frangoul | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Laro Pilartes / 500Px | 500Px | Getty ImagesThe U.S. Department of Energy said $35 million in funding would be made available "to advance tidal and river current energy systems" under plans it hopes will provide a shot in the arm to a sector whose current footprint is tiny. In a statement Tuesday outlining the move, the DOE said the funding opportunity — which is slated for release in 2023 — represented the "largest investment in tidal and river current energy technologies in the United States." The DOE said it proposed "to develop a tidal or river current research, development, and demonstration site and to support in-water demonstration of at least one tidal energy system." Alejandro Moreno, who is acting assistant secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, said oceans and rivers represented "a huge potential source of renewable energy." "The U.S. tidal and river current energy industry requires long-term and substantial funding to move from testing devices one at a time to establishing a commercial site," it said.

ATLANTA — Democratic candidates in the two marquee Georgia races are blitzing the airwaves with television ads — and making two markedly different pitches to voters. Another features testimonials from GOP-leaning voters who say they’re supporting Warnock this fall. Abrams is relying heavily on mobilizing the base, aiming to inspire and register disaffected Georgians and turbocharge progressive turnout. “They are running two very different campaigns,” said an adviser to Kemp, who was granted anonymity to candidly assess Democratic strategy. “There are some voters — many voters — that are already pretty much fixed in their opinions.

Organizers with Stop TxDOT I-45 said expanding in the area would hurt the predominantly Black and Latino communities along the stretch. Kendra London joined Stop TxDOT I-45 three years ago when she learned of the state’s plans to expand the highway. Stop TxDOT I-45 and Allendale Strong are two of more than 70 groups across the country that comprise the Freeway Fighters Network, a coalition of groups advocating for the dismantling of harmful highways and urging city leaders not to expand highways or build new ones. “We hadn’t actually stopped building new highways that still harm communities, predominantly communities of color. “We should be thinking about long-term repair,” Hood said, highlighting the Black communities affected by the highway.

☆ In sprint to midterms, Biden hits the road for 4-day swing through Western states
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Shannon-Pettypiece-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Shannon Pettypiece | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

The White House has indicated Biden will be increasingly active on the campaign trail, where he aims to give fellow Democrats a boost and contrast his policies with those of Republicans. After Colorado, Biden will travel to California before he ends the trip with two days in Oregon. In Colorado, Sen. Michael Bennet leads his Republican rival by more than 7 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. The White House has not publicly detailed Biden's schedule for Oregon and California, a fundraising hot spot for Democrats. Biden’s last trip out West was in June, when he was in California for the Summit of the Americas.

☆ Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee urges Mitt Romney to back his reelection campaign against Evan McMullin: 'Please get on board'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

GOP Sen. Mike Lee on Tuesday urged fellow Utahn Mitt Romney to back his reelection campaign. During a Fox News interview, Lee said that Romney's support could help the GOP win back the Senate. Romney previously said he wouldn't endorse — as he is friends with Lee and challenger Evan McMullin. Evan McMullin is running as an independent candidate in the 2022 Utah Senate race. Among likely voters, the race remained largely unchanged, with Lee leading McMullin 42% to 37% — and 12% of respondents stating that they were undecided.

☆ Return of pet projects in U.S. Congress crowds out funding for others
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Andy Sullivan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

A view shows the city of Glen Ullin, U.S., in this undated photo. Sept 29 (Reuters) - Glen Ullin, North Dakota, was first in line for money to replace its leaky water pipes before Washington cut funding by one-third this spring. The reason: Congress is yet again diverting money to pet projects known as "earmarks. That wasn't an option in North Dakota, whose congressional delegation did not submit any earmark requests this year or last. Glen Ullin probably won't qualify for infrastructure dollars because those are distributed using different criteria, officials say.

☆ Treasury's Wally Adeyemo says Biden administration is doing everything it can to combat inflation and recession
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said Wednesday that the Biden administration is doing everything it can to combat inflation avoid a recession. He added that the administration is working to bring down inflation through a series of measures outlined in the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law. "That will give us the ability to make sure that we have sustainable growth as we come out of this high inflation period." "The spending (in the) Inflation Reduction Act is spent over time, and it's spending that's going to help expand the productive capacity of the economy," he said. He said investments that make the economy more productive, will lead to "better growth outcomes over time."

☆ Biden administration picks former Chicago, DC transportation leader to head EV charging program
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Matt Mcfarland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Washington, DC CNN Business —Gabe Klein, who has led transportation departments in Washington, DC and Chicago, will head the Biden administration’s $7.5 billion program to build out the country’s electric vehicle charging network. His leadership in DC and Chicago was marked by being among the first transportation departments to embrace emerging transportation trends like car-sharing, bikeshare and bike lanes. Gabe Klein, shown in 2015 in Washington, DC, will lead the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. Electric vehicles have much smaller carbon footprints than gas-powered vehicles over the typical lifetime of a vehicle. The federal government passed new tax credits for electric vehicles last month.

☆ Biden admin to fund community education on nuclear waste
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A man fishes in the Susquehanna River in front of the Three Mile Island Nuclear power plant in Goldsboro, Pennsylvania, U.S. May 30, 2017. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File PhotoWASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The Biden administration said on Tuesday it will offer funding for up to eight U.S. entities or communities that are interested in learning about the storage of nuclear waste, an issue that has hampered the nuclear power industry. The U.S. Energy Department said it will offer $16 million in funding to provide resources in communities that want to learn about interim and consent-based siting of nuclear waste, which the industry calls spent nuclear fuel. "With this funding, we are facilitating constructive, community-based discussions around the consensual solutions for storing spent nuclear fuel in order to harness the true power of clean nuclear energy." Some members of communities in rural Texas and New Mexico have supported efforts to store nuclear waste on an interim basis but governors of those states have opposed the idea.

☆ Housing prices have hit a 30-year high, but don't expect Congress to help anytime soon
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-17 | by ( Joseph Zeballos-Roig | Alcynna Lloyd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

It seems unlikely that Congress will step in anytime soon to provide housing relief for Americans. But that was only a brief reprieve from a housing market crisis brewing in the US for decades. Soaring housing and rent prices made up a large portion of the increases in the latest inflation report released on Tuesday. "There's all this chaos in the housing market," Williams said. "The combination of higher mortgage rates and the slowdown in economic growth is weighing on the housing market," Sam Khater, Freddie Mac's chief economist, told Insider.

☆ Why Joe Biden thinks he's never too old to be your president
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-13 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +28 min

As the oldest sitting president, he's raising concerns about how long he can continue governing. Republicans — including Trump — have gleefully seized on Biden's verbal misadventures, such as when he called his vice president "President Harris." President Joe Biden drives the Ford's new all-electric F-150 Lightning in Dearborn, Michigan. Ruggerio described the idea that Joe Biden is diminished or can't remember things as "bull crap." Cox said that while he thinks Biden is "still Joe" and still capable, he worries that Biden's age is a problem.

One of two state agencies responsible for pushing out millions of dollars in federal infrastructure funds said it could be at least mid-to-late 2023 before any allocations roll out. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, a Democrat, has said the price tag to overhaul the city’s water infrastructure could balloon into the billions. This year, the Mississippi Legislature created a $450 million water infrastructure funding program with money the state received through the Congressional Covid relief package that passed in 2021. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is administering the Clean Water State Revolving Fund program. Sam Mozee, director of the Mississippi Urban Research Center at Jackson State University, says his team is tracking what happens with funding going forward.

☆ The climate crisis has world leaders rethinking nuclear power
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-18 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Climate change and Russia's invasion of Ukraine has world leaders looking again at nuclear power. Gavin Newsom's plan to keep a nuclear power plant open points to a trend. Nuclear power doesn't emit greenhouse gases and provides 10% of global electricity. Gavin Newsom wants to extend the life of a nuclear plant that was slated to close by 2025. The race to combat the climate crisis and shore up energy supplies after Russia's invasion of Ukraine is pushing policymakers to reconsider nuclear power.

A high-stakes debt ceiling standoff in Washington could have spillover effects on state spending plans that rely heavily on federal aid to fund a variety of social programs and transportation projects. Policy experts say failing to suspend or raise the debt limit could disrupt spending at the state level, particularly with regard to the recently enacted $1.2 trillion infrastructure law. “We don't have experience of a federal default,” said Jared Walczak, vice president of state projects at the Tax Foundation. "Federal default has never happened and everyone hopes and expects that it won't happen now," Walczak said. It is the National Association of State Budget Officers, not the National Association of State Budget Officials.

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