cspan 2024 coverage is your front row seat to the residential election. watch meet and greets, speeches and events. campaign 2024 on cspan network or anytime online at cspan.org. >> all this week on washington journal --"washington journal" we will be taking a look at the inflation reduction act. it has been one year since president biden signed into law. islation this week and their effect on areas like clean energy, job creation, electric vehicles and agriculture. to kick us off, we are joined by

robinson meyer, the founding executive editor of heat map news and is here to talk about the clean energy provisions your news outlet, what do you focus on. absolutely. we focus on this great decarbonization story that is happening every country across every continent, political fallout, psychological fallout. host: how are you guest: single investor we are suspicion based. one of the decisions we made as a news outlet is with digital media, the best way to align our incentives and the best way to align how we work as a media

company is to get most of our revenue from them. and it's an $80 annual subscription and eight dollars monthly subscription and we think having a pay wall, a digital subscription is the best way for us to reach our readers. host: on a typical day, what are you reporting on? guest: i cover the policy and politics of energy transition. we might have a new review of an electric vehicle or a story about a court case or a law that goes through congress that will affect energy for the oil market or the. -- solar or wind market. whenever there is a large wildfire like earlier this year with the huge canadian smoke storms hitting the united states , we are covering those things.

one thing that i admire about her coverage is that some weather coverage now we try to be quite honest with readers about this factor of this disaster probably had something to do with climate change or another factor didn't. we know disasters like this are becoming more common. host: there are several things this morning about the wildfire in maui and also the step-by-step guide to wildfire evacuation. we will talk about and focus on the climate provisions in the inflation reduction act. what was the intent a year ago? guest: when we look at the energy provisions in the inflation reduction act, the first was to me america's target under the paris agreement which is to cut u.s. emissions in half by 2030.

the law by itself doesn't quite get his there but it gets us close. the second is to revitalize u.s. manufacturing and the u.s. have advanced competitiveness with china which is a focus of a number of biden administration policies including the bipartisan infrastructure law and the chips act but was also a goal of the ira. the third goal and this encompasses the others but it was to give the united states a climate policy and to give us a starting place from which we could build what the rest of our decarbonization plan and policy would look like. it's important here to step back and say climate policy, climate change became a political issue let's say in 1988 when scientists first alerted the senate that climate change was happening. there was a big u.n. conference

in 1992 but for the next 30 years, the united states really did not have not even a climate policy, we didn't have a plan or any way we had to reduce our carbon emissions. we had no consensus on how to go about doing this. with the ira did was create a framework for tax credits r&d grants and a slew of different physical tools to give us a climate policy. that in some cases is a curse but that's the biggest thing was to have america be able to be a part of his global climate transition and for us to stop being a retro great actor. host: to get to the climate policy in the biden administration, it had to be a vehicle known as the inflation reduction act. guest: exactly, all the tax credits and all the subsidies in the law, those are all focused on this goal of reducing

emissions by 2030. host: let's look at the provisions and i will start with the $10 billion in tax credits to build electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines. after a year, where are we? guest: where we really see the text credit taking hold is in manufacturing. since the law passed, there have been 51 new factories for solar alone open in the u.s.. it's all the parts of the solar supply chain, transformers and all the tools you need. we are a think we are early is seeing that money trickle through bringing electricity to the grid. last year, all the decisions for -- preceded the inflation reduction act. wind or solar or zero carbon was

the focus last year and i expect that to rise in the years a come but we are not there yet. host: and that bill signed last year, $7,500 tax credit or tax rebates for buying an electric vehicle. have americans bought into that? guest: it depends are -- where you are looking. what's interesting about how it works is that it is divided into two parts and it's only for first vehicles made in the united states. then it -- then you get half of it if you refine the minerals of the batteries in the united states in the second half is enough of the battery was manufactured in the u.s., the rising percentage over time. again, we are seeing some pickup in the ev market but the goal of that provision which was shaped by senator manchin was to build

a u.s. tv manufacturing base and i think we have definitely seen a response there. since the law started, i think 61 new electric vehicle manufacturer facilities are in the u.s. in 56 billion dollars of investment. host: our guest is the founding executive editor of heat map news. we are talking about the inflation reduction act, particular the climate provisions and some of the provisions that have been implemented over the past year and we welcome your calls and comments that the republican line (202) 748-8001, (202) 748-8000 democrats line and all others, (202) 748-8002. on the electric vehicle tax credits. at the time or shortly

thereafter, number of foreign car manufacturers were concerned they were being shut out of the american market because of the tax credits. has that been resolved? guest: it has been somewhat resolved. in some cases, the foreign manufactures just opening factories in the united states they say we have to play along so a have to open factories here. another provision is a $7,500 credit for releasing an electric vehicle. -- four leasing an electric vehicle. any ev will qualify. i believe hyundai or maybe vw, there electric vehicle sales are happening through leasing. host: there is a $20 billion loans available for promoting

electrical vehicle manufacturing. there were battery factories being built in this country. it happened in states like georgia and alabama with huge battery manufacturing. did those plants start because of the provision or are they benefiting from the provision? host: guest: i would say both. we saw some electric vehicle manufacturing facilities opening in the years before the ira. there has been explosion since the ira. in terms of manufacturers using the credit, ford is opening a large facility in conjunction with battery manufacturing. that facility is going to be entirely paid for by one kind of

government support or another including large-scale loans through the ira or other loans. host: in your reporting, where have american consumers receive the biggest benefit out of the climate provisions? guest: so far, american consumers have probably seen the biggest benefit through the ev leasing provision and through the ev provisions broadly. in the years to come, they will probably see the biggest benefit for renewable tax credits through what i would say many folks associate with meeting electric prices and it will be your dish easier to install renewables. host: our american utilities -- utility companies benefiting from this by converting to clean energy? guest: but they are also fighting it. at the same time, the law has set up subsidies and tax credits to build out renewables and

other electricity, the environmental protection agency is trying to put down rules that will actually force companies to do that. many fighting those euros but many utilities are already committed to a zero target either eliminating all carbon omissions from their electricity by 2040. host: what states have done follow on provisions or laws of their own in the wake of the passage of the climate provision? guest: we have seen some policy in blue states like new york state has passed a law but it basically says if utilities aren't building renewables quickly enough that the state will step in and build some of its own.

there was no guarantee we would dominate electric vehicles, as well. that was something that seemed like europe and china were going to excel at. since the ira passed, the u.s. has stepped it up. it seems likely we will now meet

or exceed our domestic demand for electric vehicles through north american manufacturing. host: your calls and comes for robert meyer, welcome. (202) 748-8001, the republican line. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents and all others, (202) 748-8002. mark is on the republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. you know what i would like to bring up? the fact whenever there is a talk about climate change or climate issues, what is always left out, what is always omitted from the conversation is when you words -- you use words like tax credits for buying an electric vehicle, or we are going to subsidize things. you know, that is kind of like a soft way of saying we are going to soak the american taxpayer for this. what is going to happen is, people in the lowest tax bracket, people who make less than $40,000 a year or not --

are not going to be able to buy an elective vehicle. their tax money is going to go, by force, to people who cannot afford to buy an electric vehicle. the whole thing with the climate is, i wish you would come out and say what it really is. the people who are behind this, literally believe there are too many people on this planet. when climate change people make prediction after prediction, which they have for the last 70 years, it almost always keeps changing. first, it was going to be global warming. then, global freezing. we had leonard nimoy in 1979, claimed new york was going to be a constant snow belt. within 10 years, you know? 1989, there was a washington post article that said the world was basically going to come to an end in 10 years. host: to mark's original point on the tax credits and who is picking up the tab on the tax