Let’s Get Our Maui Sh*t Together, Feds

Today’s White House press briefing covered a ton of stuff, from the Lahaina fire’s federal response to the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, so let’s dig in!

LIVE: Today’s White House Press Briefing Probably About Maui

Stupid Inflation Reduction Act, Growing Economy And Decreasing Emissions And Capping Grandma’s Insulin And

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell led off the briefing, noting that just prior to the press conference, she had briefed President Joe Biden on the aid and recovery efforts in Hawaii. During that meeting, Biden spoke on the phone with Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, with whom Biden has been closely coordinating.

There is in fact a huge problem in Maui, with island residents saying they’re seeing next to no help from the state or the feds; while it’s nice to help your neighbors, and you should, it’s past time for residents to see some comforting lights from a helicopter, or a giant tank, or however you might use “military” for good.

Criswell explained that the federal efforts to help Hawaii continue to expand, with the opening of a one-stop resource center to make sure people get the aid they’re entitled to. She said her agency wants to get as many people registered for assistance as quickly as possible, and asked the media and people on the ground in Hawaii to help spread that message.

The government and the Red Cross have two teams in Hawaii to help children affected by the fires, both to assist them in dealing with the trauma and to provide some degree of normalcy by helping them get ready to return to school. The government is also flying in additional cadaver dogs and mortuary teams, to more quickly find and identify victims in the burned-out town of Lahaina. Criswell had noted in her Monday press briefing that the dogs can only work so long before needing breaks, especially since some parts of the wreckage include hot spots that fire crews need to get to.

Then John Podesta, Biden’s point guy on implementing clean energy, talked up the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, which turned one today but has generated many more billions in clean energy investments than the typical underachieving human toddler. He noted that consumers are already seeing benefits, like the EV tax credits of up to $7,500 for new electric vehicles, or up to $4,000 for a used EV. People installing home solar, energy-efficient appliances, and/or heat pumps can have up to 30 percent of the costs covered by the IRA’s tax incentives, too.

And just in the first year, he said, utilities have passed on to ratepayers roughly $8 billion in clean energy savings; the Energy Department estimates those savings to come to $38 billion by 2030.

Emphasizing (for whoever thinks it matters) that the Biden industrial policy is a “Government-enabled, private sector-led approach,” Podesta added that the IRA has led to $110 billion in new manufacturing investments, and another $120 billion in new utility-scale clean energy production. Hey, for the next bill, let’s do permitting and grid reform to get green energy online faster!

Neera Tanden, Biden’s top domestic policy adviser, noted that the IRA has brought down healthcare costs for millions of Americans, with 15 million Obamacare policyholders saving an average of $800 year on health insurance. She noted that Medicare recipients already have their insulin costs capped at $35 a month, and that they receive a number of vaccines for no cost. Also, she said, the administration will soon announce the first 10 medications for which it will negotiate Medicare prices, making American healthcare a little bit like Europe (though she didn’t speak that dreaded continent’s name).

They took a few questions as well; Podesta said that the public is certainly aware that climate change is real, and causing real disasters like flooding, heatwaves, and the fires in Hawaii, even if Republicans think it’s a witch hunt hoax.

Both took questions about the perception problem the administration is wrestling with: It’s doing neat stuff but not getting credit for it. Neither stared at the reporters and said “dang, why aren’t people hearing news about what the IRA is doing for them?” Tanden drew a parallel to the Affordable Care Act, pointing out that while people may not have been excited about it at first, they knew they wanted to keep it when Republicans tried to kill it.

In a similar vein, when asked what the administration will do to prevent its progress from being undone by Republicans, both noted that the parts of the IRA that are in effect now — lower insulin costs, lower out-of-pocket costs for Medicare part D starting next year, energy tax credits, and new clean energy jobs, especially in red states — will be hard to cut, because what governor is going to say nah, let’s close that battery factory or solar panel plant so we can put thousands of people out of work?

Podesta was particularly diplomatic when it came to Sen. Joe Manchin’s vow this week that he would defeat the IRA that was largely his own work last year. Manchin griped today that the administration was ruining his happy perfect bill by, well, implementing exactly what’s in it, which he hadn’t really paid attention to, like the fact that there’s no upper limit to how much the government can pay out in total energy tax credits. Manchin called that bit — which was in the bill he helped write and pass — a “radical climate agenda” because he seems not to have noticed how good it is.

Podesta went out of his way to thank Manchin for his hard work, and to point out that Manchin must surely be pleased to see that the IRA has fostered US energy independence. After all, a new Energy Department analysis released today found that the IRA will lead to a sharp decline in oil imports, by as much as “44%–59% between 2022 and 2030, relative to a 35% decline in a scenario without the legislation.” Way to go, Senator Manchin!

Podesta went on, in reply to another reporter’s question about the higher costs of all those energy tax credits, to say that maybe the expenditure will be higher than estimated, but so will the benefits: It’s good for the economy if more companies are taking the credits, creating jobs, and speeding up the transition to clean energy. He stopped short of quoting the old cartoon about what if we cleaned up the environment, reduced diseases from pollution, and created a lot of clean energy jobs, and it was all for nothing?

Also, it looks like Joe Biden is late with his own speech about the IRA anniversary, which he just started!

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[White House on YouTube / The Hill / Politico]

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