The Daily Agenda: Spare some of that climate cash for the little guy
The Inflation Reduction Act set off a tsunami of cash ... A UA program will help regular people get in on the action ... A tiny ally emerges in the fight against Interstate 11.
In a perfect world, if you were worried about climate change and wanted to put solar panels on your house, you could just call up the Inflation Reduction Act Office and ask for some money.
But that conversation is never going to happen. There is no such office and if you want a piece of the $360 billion in climate-related cash that law unleashed, then you are going to need a hand.
In Tucson, you might actually get that help soon, thanks to a $10 million program at the University of Arizona designed to help underserved communities navigate the labyrinth of grant writing.
Even for environmental lawyers, like state Sen. Priya Sundareshan, figuring out how to work the system is a difficult task.
“I have installed solar panels on my house and I know it’s not an easy process to navigate, and that’s for someone who has been following these issues really closely,” Sundareshan said at a Thursday press conference in Tucson.
In April, the UA was selected by the Environmental Protection Agency as an Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center, one of 17 across the country, which comes with $10 million in funding to help remove barriers and improve access in communities with environmental justice concerns.
The centers will provide training and assistance to people as they navigate federal grant application systems, write grant proposals and manage grant funding. They’ll also provide translation and interpretation service for people with limited English-speaking abilities and help ensure all communities have direct access to resources and information.
The program will build upon work already being done in the UA’s College of Public Health, which for years has been helping rural, border and tribal communities deal with environmental challenges.
For now, city and state governments are taking advantage of the climate cash.
Mayor Regina Romero highlighted some of the programs funded by the IRA at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, like $21.4 million to convert the SunTran fleet to low- or no-emissions by 2025. In May, state and federal officials reached a seven-state agreement on Colorado River water, made possible by $1.2 billion in IRA money.
That’s all well and good. Low-emission buses slow the advance of climate change and the entire Southwest desperately needed to reach some sort of agreement about the Colorado River.
But it could all go away, if some members of Congress get their wish, Sundareshan and others said Thursday.
Sundareshan, ranking member of the state Senate’s Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee, said the IRA and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are groundbreaking steps towards addressing climate change and moving to a clean energy economy.
“Implementation (of these laws) is bringing money right here to Tucson for the benefit of Southern Arizona and really, the entire state,” she said. “The impact of this money is to focus on our environmental justice communities … that really bear the brunt of these climate impacts. They’re the first to experience the impact of climate change, they experience them more acutely.”
In Arizona, communities of color are twice as likely to live near a source of pollution, Sundareshan said, adding that the center will help bridge the educational gap and assist communities that don’t have the resources available to access federal energy efficiency investments.
“I have advocated for making it easier for individuals to be able to contribute to climate solutions by switching their use of energy resources, switching to more energy efficient appliances,” Sundareshan said.
But while the funding is a critical step towards a more environmentally equitable future, Sundareshan said, it’s also under threat, as some members of Congress are working to reduce funding to the IRA and IIJA.
“If anything, we must be strengthening and protecting these laws and adding to the funds available,” she said.
The center will support residents across the state with environmental justice concerns, as well as communities in California, Hawaii and Nevada. Mi Familia Vota’s Political and Advocacy Director Sheril Steinberg said during the press conference that the center’s work will help create a healthier future for Arizona’s Hispanic communities by addressing legacy pollution and energy costs..
Activate 48 Coalition Director Laura Dent called the center a “powerful tool that can deliver on our shared goal of redressing these disparities and capacity gaps.”
“(Communities of color) and low-income Arizonans are more likely to deal with respiratory issues, like asthma, heat-related health complications, and more,” Dent said.
The IRA alone is expected to bring $4.1 billion in investment in large-scale clean power generation and storage to Arizona by 2030 and is providing funding for energy efficiency, clean energy innovation and jobs in clean energy, according to Dent.
That is, if the funding remains intact.
Just in time: Pima County Democrats in Legislative District 20 are set to meet Monday for a “ratification vote” on three potential replacements for the district’s open seat, after failing to properly notify the public before voting on the picks earlier this month, according to the Tucson Sentinel’s Dylan Smith and Jim Nintzel. The Pima County Board of Supervisors is set to pick the new lawmaker Tuesday. Potential replacements include Elma Alvarez, Lourdes Escalante and Betty Villegas.
Jack of owl trades: Opponents of Interstate 11 construction through Avra Valley might have just found a powerful new ally in a tiny owl, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tony Davis reports. On Tuesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it will protect the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl as a threatened species in Southern Arizona and southern Texas due to climate change, habitat destruction, invasive species and other threats. Environmentalists say noise and air pollution from freeway traffic could negatively effect wildlife and that the construction would fragment habitat.
Lowered expectations: Oro Valley issued 52 fewer permits for single-family homes during the last fiscal year than the town’s initial projection, Tucson Local Media reports. The town expected to issue 171 permits, but only issued 119 — the fewest single-family permits issued in at least the last four years. In fiscal year 2019/20, the town issued 275 permits, a 15-year high.
It costs far less money to make the Tucson Agenda sustainable than it does to build a house in Oro Valley. Help us hit our goal!
Election transparency: The Pima County Elections Department is taking steps to address complaints about election transparency, according to the Arizona Republic’s Sarah Lapidus. Elections Director Constance Hargrove said complaints about the county’s 24/7 livestream of the ballot tabulation room have been addressed, and the county is adding security measures to keep its poll workers safe and address misinformation.
"The (livestream cameras) are on all the time so people can see what's going on in that room,” Hargrove said. "We go in and we do programming, and we do maintenance and things like that so they can see everything that's going on.”
Misplaced focus: Republican lawmakers pushing for hand counts of ballots are focusing more on whether hand counts are allowed, rather than whether they’re a good idea, VoteBeat Arizona’s Jen Fifield reports. So far, supervisors in several counties are hesitating before joining the cause. Meanwhile, Cochise County supervisors are fighting a court ruling that says they can’t perform a full hand count audit of elections.
Turning a phrase: The Arizona Department of Transportation is looking for witty comments about driver safety in their annual contest, KJZZ’s Andrea Barrios reports. Winners of the contest will get to see their jokes on LED signs near freeways throughout Arizona. Last year, ADOT got more than 3,000 submissions.
“Don’t hurry, be happy. Buckle up, buttercup. You may have seen signs like these on freeways throughout the state, and you may have had your own clever idea. ADOT wants to hear it,” Barrios writes.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to protect the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl comes more than 17 years after the bird was removed from the list, in response to litigation from homebuilders.