Crooked Media - What A Day: Green bill of health

The infrastructure plan that President Biden introduced on Wednesday includes a host of exciting initiatives aimed at tackling the climate crisis, which progressives have applauded—as long as it doesn’t spell the end of the (newly resurfaced, pothole-free) road.
 

• Infrastructure Week: It's not just a running joke anymore™ (to the great bafflement of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem). The total clean-energy investments in the American Jobs Plan add up to more than $1 trillion, larger than the entire 2009 economic-recovery package. Transportation spending is naturally a major piece of the emissions-cutting agenda: In addition to its $85 billion for repairing public transit, Biden’s plan allocates $174 billion to install 500,000 electric vehicle chargers by 2030, speeding up the transition away from fossil fuels. 
   
• The power sector, the second largest contributor to the country’s carbon footprint, would also get a green overhaul. The plan calls for a $100 billion investment in the electricity grid to make sure it can withstand more extreme weather while transitioning over to cleaner fuels, a Clean Electricity Standard that would require utility companies to increase their share of clean energy, and a 10 year extension of tax credits for wind and solar energy. The White House sloppily left out some key language mandating tiny windows across the land, but there’s still time to fix it.
   
• There’s also funding to address leaking oil and gas wells (which both pollute drinking water and pump methane into the atmosphere), tens of billions of dollars for research into climate technology, and $10 billion for the creation of a Civilian Climate Corps to “put a new, diverse generation of Americans to work conserving our public lands and waters.” The proposal was crafted with racial justice in mind, with 40 percent of the climate and clean energy investments targeting disadvantaged communities that bear the brunt of environmental injustices. 

It’s the closest we’ve ever gotten to a Green New Deal, and environmental advocates are 1) pumped, and 2) determined to get closer.
 

• On Tuesday, a coalition of labor unions and environmental groups called for a $4 trillion climate plan, while progressives in Congress are pushing for $1 trillion in spending per year over the next decade. Varshini Prakash, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, both praised the historic provisions in Biden’s proposal and stressed that they should be just the beginning: “Biden has finally heard us and is speaking our language. The framing of this package is our framing; the priorities are our priorities. But I feel deeply aware of how much more power we must build to fully realize our vision of a Green New Deal.”
   
• There’s also still the small matter of getting it through Congress, and with Republicans hitting the roof over proposed tax increases on corporations and rich people to fund it, it appears that Democrats will once again be forced to pass cool, popular legislation all on their own. And once again, the GOP has a finger firmly on the pulse of its own farts: A new Politico/Morning Consult poll found that voters are way more likely to support the same infrastructure bill if it’s funded by targeted tax increases.
   

The vast majority of Democrats can agree that Biden’s climate initiatives would mark an enormous step forward and signal that the administration has taken progressive priorities on board. The big question now is how many more chances Biden will have to further his climate agenda, and whether he should therefore use this moment to do even more.

Nearly seven million additional Americans now qualify for free health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, thanks to an American Rescue Plan provision that just went into effect. Another 1.3 million could sign up for a health plan that costs under $50 a month, and 3.7 million people are now eligible for the ACA’s premium subsidies. The coronavirus relief law’s ACA expansions could go a long way towards bringing down the uninsured rate, but there’s a familiar hurdle to overcome: getting people to sign up. That’s been a longstanding problem, in large part because many uninsured Americans don’t realize they’re eligible. The Biden administration has doubled its advertising campaign to get the word out about the enrollment period now open through August 15. By the end of the summer, we’ll have a much clearer idea of how the ACA functions at full capacity—and where improvements in the health-care system are still needed.

• Four people, including a nine-year-old boy, were killed in a shooting at an office complex in Orange, CA. Police said the shooter had a personal or business relationship with each of the adult victims, and that it was not a random attack.
   
• President Biden has asked the Education Department to prepare a memo on the president’s legal authority to cancel student-loan debt through executive action. That review could be done in a matter of weeks.
   
• The FDA has authorized two rapid, at-home coronavirus tests to be sold over the counter, and the CDC and NIH have launched an at-home testing initiative in Tennessee and North Carolina, to find out whether widespread rapid testing can help slow the spread of the virus.
   
• George Floyd’s girlfriend, Courteney Ross, testified about their relationship and shared struggle with opioid addiction on the fourth day of the Derek Chauvin trial, as the prosecution sought to debunk the defense’s claims that the drugs found in his system were enough to kill him.
   
• Biden said he would strongly support the MLB moving the All Star Game out of Atlanta over Georgia’s garbaggio election law.
   
• Speaking of which, the Texas Senate has advanced another extremely bad voter-suppression bill, which would ban drive-through voting and overnight early voting, and make it illegal for local election officials to proactively send out absentee ballot applications.
   
• Republicans have not leapt to defend Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) (with a couple of low-grade exceptions), perhaps because they knew him to be a terrible little creep who was always showing off pictures of naked women on the House floor. Anyway, the DOJ is now also investigating whether Gaetz misused campaign funds. 
   
• Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) might be about to tank the Equality Act. If he keeps this up, we will need to reconsider our line of “Manchin Stan” t-shirts, the ones we formerly expected to sell like hotcakes. 
   
• A New Mexico man came out of a grocery store to find his car full of 15,000 bees. Nature has finished healing, and now it is up to something.

This year’s Virginia elections could wipe out the state’s voting-rights gains—or lay the groundwork for more permanent progress (optimism!). Last week, Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) signed an executive order restoring voting rights to tens of thousands of Virginians who are on probation or parole. But Northam is term-limited, and the next governor could overturn that order immediately. All five Democrats in the race have pledged to uphold the policy, and while none of the leading Republican candidates have commented either way, the Virginia GOP has a history of fighting against rights restoration. State advocates are looking to amend the state constitution so that voting rights don’t depend on who happens to be governor, but that effort also depends on whether Democrats hold onto the Virginia House in 2021. It could all go either way! The good news is, Northam’s order means that more people whose voting rights are at stake will at least have a say in the outcome.

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CDC data suggests that fully vaccinated people cannot transmit coronavirus!

Pfizer said its vaccine was still effective after six months, and was found to offer good protection against the South African variant.

New York will end the use of long-term solitary confinement in prisons and jails.

New Mexico is poised to become the 16th state to fully decriminalize marijuana, and Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) has asked Virginia legislators to speed up the state’s legalization.