the view from heti

3 things to know about the IRA that impact Houston's energy sector

Here are three things to know about how the Inflation Reduction Act is driving a clear tech industrial revolution. Photo via energy.gov

In August of 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act which aims to mitigate inflation by reducing the federal government budget deficit and lowering prescription drug prices. Through federal funding and a combination of grants, loans, rebates, incentives and other investments, the IRA also will impact domestic energy production while bolstering efforts for an energy-abundant, low-carbon future.

At the bill’s one-year anniversary, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America held a panel of leaders across multiple sectors — energy, finance, industry and academia — to discuss the IRA and what it means for the future of business and industries.

Here are three things to know about how the Inflation Reduction Act is driving a clear tech industrial revolution, according to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries:

1. IRA Encourages Private-Sector Investment

Since being passed into law by President Biden in August of 2022, the IRA’s first year yielded:

  • Companies have announced 96 gigawatts of new clean power over the previous eight months, enough to power almost 20 million homes – about one-seventh the total number of homes in the U.S.
  • Companies have announced enough new U.S. battery manufacturing projects to support production of more than 10 million EVs per year – more vehicles than were manufactured in the U.S. in 2021.
  • The IRA’s expected impact on private investment has increased between 50 percent and 200 percent from initial estimates, based on research from the Brookings Institution and Rhodium Group, with the largest jumps related to hydrogen, carbon capture, energy storage and critical minerals.

2. A strong focus on environmental justice

According to a fact sheet issued by the White House, the IRA will: reduce pollution; improve clean transit; make clean energy more affordable and accessible; and strengthen resilience to climate change. With a simple mission to accelerate the energy transition with incentives rather than penalties, the act will allocate nearly $400 billion to efforts to reach a low-carbon, energy abundant future including:

  • More than 40 percent of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund ($10.8 billion) will benefit low-income and disadvantaged communities.
  • $3 billion for states, tribes, municipalities and community-based nonprofit organizations for environmental justice and climate justice block grants. Eligible activities include mitigating climate risks from heat islands and wood heater emissions, and reducing indoor air pollution; climate resiliency; and facilitating engagement of disadvantaged communities.
  • $3 billion to reduce air pollution and emissions at ports via the installation of zero-emissions equipment and technology.
  • $37.5 million in grants to monitor and reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions at schools in low-income and disadvantaged communities along with another $12.5 million to provide technical assistance to help schools address environmental issues.
  • $33 million to the Council on Environmental Quality to collect data and track disproportionate impacts of pollution and climate change on environmental justice communities in addition to $3 million in grants to deploy, integrate and operate air quality sensors in low-income and disadvantaged communities

3. Collaboration reimagined

As the race to net zero continues, tech giants and energy leaders across all sectors ––corporations, governments, nonprofits and academia –– have come together for one common goal: develop solutions to tackle the world’s toughest energy issues. When it comes to progressing the IRA, industry and Mitsubishi President and CEO Takajiro Ishikawa weighed in on collaboration for the act noting that “The energy transition can’t be done by just one party. Collaboration and communication between all parties is key.”

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This article originally ran on the Greater Houston Partnership's Houston Energy Transition Initiative blog. HETI exists to support Houston's future as an energy leader. For more information about the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, EnergyCapitalHTX's presenting sponsor, visit htxenergytransition.org.

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A View From HETI

A View From UH

A Rice University professor studied the Earth's carbon cycle in the Rio Madre de Dios to shed light on current climate conditions. Photo courtesy of Mark Torres/Rice University

Carbon cycles through Earth, its inhabitants, and its atmosphere on a regular basis, but not much research has been done on that process and qualifying it — until now.

In a recent study of a river system extending from the Peruvian Andes to the Amazon floodplains, Rice University’s Mark Torres and collaborators from five institutions proved that that high rates of carbon breakdown persist from mountaintop to floodplain.

“The purpose of this research was to quantify the rate at which Earth naturally releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and find out whether this process varies across different geographic locations,” Torres says in a news release.

Torres published his findings in a study published in PNAS, explaining how they used rhenium — a silvery-gray, heavy transition metal — as a proxy for carbon. The research into the Earth’s natural, pre-anthropogenic carbon cycle stands to benefit humanity by providing valuable insight to current climate challenges.

“This research used a newly-developed technique pioneered by Robert Hilton and Mathieu Dellinger that relies on a trace element — rhenium — that’s incorporated in fossil organic matter,” Torres says. “As plankton die and sink to the bottom of the ocean, that dead carbon becomes chemically reactive in a way that adds rhenium to it.”

The research was done in the Rio Madre de Dios basin and supported by funding from a European Research Council Starting Grant, the European Union COFUND/Durham Junior Research Fellowship, and the National Science Foundation.

“I’m very excited about this tool,” Torres said. “Rice students have deployed this same method in our lab here, so now we can make this kind of measurement and apply it at other sites. In fact, as part of current research funded by the National Science Foundation, we are applying this technique in Southern California to learn how tectonics and climate influence the breakdown of fossil carbon.”

Torres also received a three-year grant from the Department of Energy to study soil for carbon storage earlier this year.

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