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Here’s what’s in the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping health and climate bill passed Sunday

Here's what's in the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping health and climate bill passed Sunday

The Senate passed Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act on a party-line vote Sunday afternoon, delivering the long-awaited centerpiece to President Biden’s agenda.

Democrats rallied behind the $430 billion climate, health care and tax overhaul after Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) reached a last-minute deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), who had held up previous proposals.

The House is expected to approve the legislation on Friday and send it to Biden’s desk.

Here’s a summary of what’s in the Inflation Reduction Act:

ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND CLIMATE

Businesses would get incentives for deployment of lower-carbon and carbon-free energy sources.

  • Tax credits are extended for energy production and investment in technologies including wind, solar and geothermal energies. The investment tax credit also now applies to battery storage and biogas.
  • Tax credits would be created or extended for additional technologies and energy sources including nuclear energy, hydrogen energy coming from clean sources, biofuels and technology that captures carbon from fossil fuel power plants.
  • Many of the incentives also contain bonuses for companies based on how much they pay their workers and offer credits for manufacturing their steel, iron and other components in the US

Consumers and businesses get incentives to make cleaner energy choices.

  • Tax credits are extended for residential clean energy expenses including rooftop solar, heat pumps and small wind energy systems. Consumers can get credits for 30 percent of expenditures through 2032, and the credit phases down after that.
  • Tax credits of up to $7,500 are offered to consumers who buy electric vehicles — but this credit comes with stipulations that may make it difficult for vehicles to actually qualify.
  • A tax credit would be expanded for energy efficiency in commercial buildings.

Some fossil fuel production on public lands would be bolstered.

  • The future of solar and wind on public lands and wind in public waters would be tied to requirements to hold lease sales that open up new oil and gas production.
  • The bill reinstates the results of a recent offshore oil and gas lease sale that was struck down on environmental grounds. The Interior Department would be required to hold at least three more offshore oil and gas lease sales by next October.

New programs boost investment in climate.

  • A new program aims to reduce emissions of the planet-warming gas methane from oil and gas by both providing grants and loans to help companies reign in their emissions and levying fees on producers with excess methane emissions.
  • $27 billion would go to a green bank that would provide more incentives for clean energy technology.

Costs increase for fossil fuel production on public lands.

  • Minimum royalties increase for companies to pay the government for oil and gas they extract on public lands and waters. A royalty is added to the extraction of gas that is later burned off or released as waste instead of sold as fuel.

Communities that face high pollution burdens get relief.

  • $3 billion would go to environmental justice block grants — community-led programs addressing harms from climate change and pollutants, including $20 million for technical assistance at the community level, through fiscal 2026.
  • More than $3 billion is allocated to funds for air pollution monitoring in low-income communities. Nearly half of the funds — $117 million — would specifically go to communities in close proximity to industrial pollutants.
  • An excise tax on imported petroleum and crude oil products to fund the cleanup of industrial disaster sites increases from 9.7 cents to 16.4 cents per barrel. The reinstatement of the tax is projected to raise $11 billion.
  • The bill permanently extends and increases the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, a tax on coal production to finance claims from workers with the condition. Black lung, caused by long-term exposure to and inhalation of coal dust, is believed to affect at least 10 percent of coal miners with at least 25 years’ experience, according to a 2018 study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

— Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk

HEALTH CARE

Medicare can negotiate lower prices.

The bill would allow Medicare to negotiate prices for some drugs for the first time, a policy Democrats have been trying to enact for years over the fierce objections of the pharmaceutical industry. The provisions save more than $200 billion over 10 years.

  • It would allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for 10 high-cost drugs beginning in 2026, ramping up to 20 drugs by 2029. There is a steep penalty if a drug company doesn’t come to the table: a tax of up to 95 percent of the sales of the drug. There is also a ceiling that the negotiated price cannot rise above.
  • In a deal with moderates including Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), only older drugs are subject to negotiation after a period of nine years for most drugs and 13 years for more complex “biologic” drugs. That means the negotiations are more limited than many Democrats wanted.

Drug costs can be capped but largely only for Medicare.

The bill includes other measures to cap drug costs. The provisions still largely apply only to seniors on Medicare, not the millions of people who get health insurance through their jobs, in part because complex Senate rules limited how expansive the provisions would be.

  • If drug companies raise prices in Medicare faster than the rate of inflation, they must pay rebates back to the government for the difference.
  • Democrats tried to apply this provision to the private market, but the parliamentarian ruled it violated the Senate rules used to bypass a GOP filibuster.
  • In one of the most tangible provisions for patients, the bill caps out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,000 a year for seniors on Medicare, starting in 2025.
  • The bill also caps patients’ insulin costs at $35 a month, but only for seniors on Medicare. Republicans voted against overruling the Senate parliamentarian to extend that protection to patients with private insurance.

People enrolled in ACA plans get an extension on premium assistance.

The measure also builds on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by extending enhanced financial assistance to help people enrolled in ACA plans afford premiums for three years. The extra help would otherwise have expired at the end of this year, setting up a cliff. The provision expands eligibility to allow more middle-class people to receive premium help and increases the amount of help overall.

—Peter Sullivan

TAXES

Large corporations will pay for climate and health measures within the bill.

The bill introduces new taxes on corporations to pay for its climate and health care measures.

The centerpiece of its tax plan is a 15 percent minimum tax on the income that big corporations report to their shareholders, a tax known as the minimum book tax. Initial proposals put the amount of revenue raised by the book tax at $313 billion — more than 40 percent of the $740 billion raised by the legislation as a whole.

The tax applies to companies reporting $1 billion in annual earnings. It would impact only around 150 large firms, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Sinema demanded some last-minute exclusions to the minimum tax that were favorable to the US manufacturing sector and private equity firms.

  • The tax will exempt companies taking advantage of accelerated depreciation, a popular deduction that helps pay for capital investments such as new equipment.
  • Small businesses that are subsidiaries of highly profitable private equity firms will also be exempted from the minimum tax.

The IRS gets a funding boost.

Another key measure allocates $80 billion to increase enforcement at the IRS. Democrats hope that, with more employees and better technology, the IRS can more closely examine wealthy individuals and ensure they aren’t dodging taxes. That extra revenue is expected to lower the deficit by $203 billion over the next decade.

Stock buybacks will get an additional tax.

The bill enacts a 1 percent excise tax on stock buybacks to replace the revenues lost by appeasing Sinema. Democrats expect the provision to raise $74 million over a decade.

Share repurchases by S&P 500 companies have soared in recent years and are on track to surpass $1 trillion this year. Companies buy back their stock to reward shareholders and increase their stock price by artificially limiting supply.

  • The tax will impact the nation’s largest companies that rely on multibillion-dollar buybacks to raise their stock price, including Apple, Nike and Exxon Mobil.
  • Democrats have criticized the practice, arguing that companies should invest in workers and innovation instead of repurchasing stock.

To further recover revenue lost to the private equity sector, the bill also extends a set of limitations on losses that businesses can deduct from their taxes. The limits prevent wealthy individuals from significantly bringing down or even wiping out their income tax liability. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said that extending the caps would raise $52 billion.

— Tobias Burns and Karl Evers-Hillstrom

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US

The market’s big winners and losers in climate, health and tax bill

The market's big winners and losers in climate, health and tax bill

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) walks outside the US Capitol in Washington, US August 2, 2022.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Want to know what the Inflation Reduction Act means for the market’s biggest companies, as well as for your wallet? When it comes to politics, you always have to follow the money – and remember that the devil is in the details.

The Senate on Aug. 7 passed the bill that’s designed to fight climate change, make significant tax changes, trim the federal deficit, cut drug prices for Medicare recipients and extend expanded health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. As it moves to the House of Representatives, the roster of the winners and losers under the bill is coming into sharper focus even before it goes to President Joe Biden.

For both winners and losers, the impact is more modest than you would think, given the sheer size of numbers being bandied about. That’s because of details like strings attached to some of the new or extended tax breaks, or the schedule for implementing Medicare’s negotiations with big pharmaceutical companies over drug prices.

Changes will be more gradual than many headlines imply.

Beginning with the biggest-dollar provisions of the ten-year package of spending and tax cuts, these are some of the effects American corporations and citizens will see from the law. The two biggest changes are the bill’s deficit reducers – just two provisions of the law that account for 80% of its $300 billion in deficit reduction, according to Moody’s Analytics.

Losers: Big tax-avoiding corporations

Members of the Patriotic Millionaires hold a federal tax filing day protest outside the apartment of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to demand he pay his fair share of taxes, in New York City, May 17, 2021.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

The biggest provision by far of the package is the $313 billion Moody’s Analytics says will be raised over 10 years by imposing a 15% minimum tax on corporate profits for businesses that earn at least $1 billion a year.

The law also cracks down on the practice of letting companies announce one set of profit figures to investors, while using another set of numbers that include tax loopholes to show the government. This happens by applying the 15% rate to the “book rate” profits companies disclose to Wall Street, says the liberal-leaning Roosevelt Institute.

The institute says 55 big companies paid no net federal taxes in 2020, including names like Nike, Salesforce.com, Archer Daniels Midland and Fedex. They would have owed $8.5 billion in 2020 at the standard corporate tax rate of 21%, the institute said.

A report by the Center for American Progress says 19 companies in the Fortune 100 alone paid little or no tax in 2021. Among companies that paid 6% or less, as calculated by liberal-leaning think tank: Amazon, Exxon Mobil, AT&T, Bank of America, and both Ford and General Motors. All of them will likely be paying more.

Losers: Drug companies (but not as much as you think)

Participants hold signs as then-Democratic US presidential candidate US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke at a news conference to introduce the “Medicare for All Act of 2019” on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 10, 2019

Aaron P. Bernstein | Reuters

The government will save $288 billion by negotiating over drug prices, Moody’s says, and that’s a win for senior citizens – but some experts say the change will be more gradual and phased in than many consumers expect.

That’s because the law will only let Medicare negotiate over a few drugs in the early years of the law’s implementation. Medicare will only be able to haggle over 10 drugs in fiscal 2026, and new drugs will not be subject to negotiation for nine to 13 years after their market introduction, said Tricia Neuman, executive director of the Program on Medicare Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation .

“Savings are exponentially smaller than under the [2019] House bill, which covered many more drugs,” Neuman said. That bill would have let Medicare negotiate terms with 25 top drugs initially, and expanded faster.

One win for seniors is a $2,000 annual cap on their contribution to prescription spending. Most recipients now spend less, but cancer patients can easily spend $10,000 or more, according to a 2019 study. That gives Medicare recipients certainty about drug expenses, Neuman said.

The impact on companies isn’t completely clear because it’s not known yet exactly which drugs will be the first subjected to price negotiations, Neuman said. In 2020, Medicare spent more than $1 billion on each of nearly 40 drugs. Bristol Myers Squibb’s blood-clotting treatment Eliquis ($9.9 billion), Bristol Myers Squibb’s cancer treatment Revlimid ($5.4 billion), and Johnson and Johnson’s blood-clotting drug Xarelto ($4.7 billion) top the list.

What about the spending part of the bill?

Among so-called spending in the bill is actually targeted tax cuts, which the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation calls tax expenditures. One of the three biggest ones in this package, which together account for three-fourths of the $313 billion in tax breaks, is an extension of existing health-care law.

It would extend the subsidies for health insurance under Obamacare that were increased during the Covid pandemic, keeping the benefit hikes from expiring Dec. 31.

People who buy insurance through Obamacare are among the winners. An estimated $64 billion of the package will be in the form of tax credits for people who buy health insurance on Internet exchange markets like Healthcare.gov, according to Moody’s. These credits subsidize the cost of coverage for people whose employers don’t offer benefits and who make too much to be eligible for Medicaid, and were expanded in Covid relief legislation to make policies more affordable.

The provision extends the credit for three years, adding nothing to the deficit after fiscal 2026, Moody’s says. Without it, an estimated 3.1 million Americans would have lost health care coverage, estimates the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Winners: Car companies (but maybe not Tesla)

GM launched ‘EV Live,’ a free online platform that connects electric vehicle owners or consumers who have questions about zero-emissions cars and trucks with an expert who can answer them.

Courtesy: GM

The other big headlines on the “spending” side of the bill are the extension of the $7,500 consumer income tax credit for the purchase of new electric vehicles, and the addition of a new, $4,000 credit for buying a used EV. But the details of the bill make assessing short-term winners and losers complicated.

First, the bill caps the price of eligible new cars at $55,000, excluding the most popular version of Tesla’s Model 3 (as well as all Model S and X vehicles). Trucks and vans can get the credit if they cost less than $80,000. Even that’s a modest win for Tesla, which has not offered its buyers any tax credits since it used up the 200,000 credits it was allotted under existing law. Most or all vehicles from startups like Lucid Motors and Rivian are also excluded under the new bill, at least until they introduce planned cheaper models.

“The Model 3 is right on the border,” said Chris Lafakis, energy economist at Moody’s Analytics.

More crucially, the bill includes requirements for domestic manufacturing of EVs and their battery components to qualify for the extended credit. As written, the law requires that 40% of battery components be sourced from factories in the US or its free-trade agreement partners; that batteries are US made by 2029; and that Chinese components and minerals be phased out beginning in 2024.

Right now, it is not clear if any US battery plant can meet the law’s requirements. To keep the credits flowing once the law takes effect next year, the Biden administration will have to waive some provisions of the soon-to-be-approved law.

One unexpected effect of the law will be to highlight a comment Tesla CEO Elon Musk made on the EV maker’s most recent conference call, and has made before, that coming demand for EVs will make the next half-decade a great time to be an entrepreneur mining or refining the lithium that powers electric vehicle batteries. The law’s buy-American provisions will only add to those pressures.

“It is basically like minting money right now. There’s, like, software margins in lithium processing right now,” Musk said on the recent earnings call. “So I would really like to encourage, once again, entrepreneurs to enter the lithium refining business. You can’t lose.”

Winners: Utilities and homeowners

A wind farm shares space with corn fields in Latimer, Iowa, US

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

About a third of the tax breaks in the bill — up to $113 billion — are to extend tax credits to encourage production of renewable electricity plants, which have four times as much share of the US market as they did a decade or so ago.

That’s a boon to utilities, which either build plants themselves or buy power from independent operators, Lafakis said. Utilities will also benefit from selling more power as electricity fuels more cars, trucks and appliances, thanks to tax breaks in the law.

More reliance on renewables should also benefit rate payers, since new wind-electricity plants are now much cheaper than new plants that burn coal or natural gas, according to the investment bank Lazard. In some cases, a new wind plant with existing tax subsidies can be cheaper than even continuing to run a coal plant that’s already in use, Lazard said.

Ratepayers who own their own homes may also claim tax credits for shifting more of their home appliances to using electricity, which can be powered by renewables, rather than natural gas. Since most makers of electric hot water heaters and stoves also make gas models, it’s not clear whether the law will cause any major shifts in market share.

“The clear winners are clean energy, solar and other renewables,” said Robert Haworth, senior investment strategy director at US Bank Wealth Management. “And it works hard to make sure there’s not too much disincentive for fossil fuels.”

Winners: Hedge funds (for now)

Losers: Public company shareholders

US Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) waits for an elevator to go to the Senate floor at the US Capitol in Washington, US August 2, 2022.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

The last minute deal with Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to gain her vote for her made Democrats drop a plan to impose ordinary income taxes on bonuses that hedge fund and venture capital managers make, closing a loophole that lets these financiers pay lower capital-gains rates on money they never put at risk.

Instead, the plan imposes a 1% tax on stock buybacks – a corporate finance tactic companies use to increase earnings per share by reducing the number of shares outstanding with excess cash.

Proponents of the buyback tax, like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, argue that companies can put their cash to work investing more in plants and higher salaries. Opponents say it will hurt returns of retirement plans and pension funds.

Companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index spent $850 billion on buybacks last year.

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Democrat after final passage of climate bill: ‘Now I can look my kids in the eye’

Democrat after final passage of climate bill: 'Now I can look my kids in the eye'

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) was visibly emotional after the Senate passed a sweeping spending bill Sunday afternoon, emphasizing the importance of what Democrats are heralding as the largest climate investment in US history.

“This is a planetary emergency and this is the first time that the federal government has taken action that is worthy of the moment,” Schatz said outside the Senate chamber minutes after the bill passed.

“This is the biggest climate action that any country has ever taken, and now I can look my kids in the eye and say we’re really doing something about climate,” he added.

The Senate passed the mammoth bill shortly after 3 pm on Sunday, capping off a marathon session that featured more than 15 hours of debate. Vice President Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to send the measure to the House, where it is widely expected to pass.

The bill, titled the Inflation Reduction Act, provides $369 in energy security and climate investments. The measure includes $4,000 and $7,500 tax credits for purchasing used and new electric vehicles, but the funds cannot go towards vehicles that have batteries made from minerals processed in China.

The legislation is expected to bring down climate-warming emissions by 40 percent over the next 10 years.

Schatz, chief deputy whip for the Democratic caucus, told reporters “we’ve been fighting for this for decades.”

Democrats approved the bill through budget reconciliation, an arcane process that requires a simple majority vote for passage. The process allowed Democrats to avoid a GOP filibuster.

During a press conference shortly after passage of the bill Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) said the upper chamber “has now passed the most significant bill to fight the climate crisis ever.”

“It’s gonna make a difference to my grandkids. The world will be a better place for my grandchildren because of what we did today. And that makes me feel very, very good. Very, very good,” the Democratic leader added.

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US

Democrat after final passage of climate bill: ‘Now I can look my kids in the eye’

Democrat after final passage of climate bill: 'Now I can look my kids in the eye'

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) was visibly emotional after the Senate passed a sweeping spending bill Sunday afternoon, emphasizing the importance of what Democrats are heralding as the largest climate investment in US history.

“This is a planetary emergency and this is the first time that the federal government has taken action that is worthy of the moment,” Schatz said outside the Senate chamber minutes after the bill passed.

“This is the biggest climate action that any country has ever taken, and now I can look my kids in the eye and say we’re really doing something about climate,” he added.

The Senate passed the mammoth bill shortly after 3 pm on Sunday, capping off a marathon session that featured more than 15 hours of debate. Vice President Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to send the measure to the House, where it is widely expected to pass.

The bill, titled the Inflation Reduction Act, provides $369 in energy security and climate investments. The measure includes $4,000 and $7,500 tax credits for purchasing used and new electric vehicles, but the funds cannot go towards vehicles that have batteries made from minerals processed in China.

The legislation is expected to bring down climate-warming emissions by 40 percent over the next 10 years.

Schatz, chief deputy whip for the Democratic caucus, told reporters “we’ve been fighting for this for decades.”

Democrats approved the bill through budget reconciliation, an arcane process that requires a simple majority vote for passage. The process allowed Democrats to avoid a GOP filibuster.

During a press conference shortly after passage of the bill Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) said the upper chamber “has now passed the most significant bill to fight the climate crisis ever.”

“It’s gonna make a difference to my grandkids. The world will be a better place for my grandchildren because of what we did today. And that makes me feel very, very good. Very, very good,” the Democratic leader added.

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Senate Democrats pass $740 billion tax, climate and health care bill

Senate Democrats pass $740 billion tax, climate and health care bill

Senate Democrats on Sunday passed their sweeping, $740 billion tax, climate and health care reconciliation package after an all-night session, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.

Why it matters: The 51-50 passage of the bill, just three months before the midterm elections, is a massive victory for Democrats who have spent 18 months working toward delivering on their longstanding dreams of helping address climate change, lower the cost of prescription drugs and hike taxes on large corporations.

  • The “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” is far less ambitious than most Democrats wanted — the initial bill was roughly $3.5 trillion and also addressed paid family leave, funding for universal preschool and expanding the child tax credit.
  • But the narrower version of the bill succeeded in getting the support of the Senate’s two centrist members who had previously stood in the party’s way — Sens. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).
  • The package now moves to the House, where members will vote as early as Friday on advancing the bill to President Biden’s desk.

Details: The Senate returned to the Capitol on Saturday afternoon, and began voting late Saturday night and into Sunday on a series of amendments — part of the process known as “vote-a-rama.”

  • Senate Republicans offered dozens of amendments aimed at minimizing the bill, including stripping out funding for the Internal Revenue Service and eliminating COVID-19-related school mandates.
  • Democrats held firm in their unity, with the help of Harris, of preserving the core elements of the package and voting down each GOP amendment.

One major setback, however, it was a ruling by the Senate Parliamentarian that determined Democrats’ proposal to place a $35 cap on commercial insulin violated the “Byrd Rule,” which governs the provisions for what can be accepted in budget reconciliation legislation.

  • Democrats tried, and failed, to attach an amendment including the insulin provision to the bill, but Republicans voted it down, eliminating it from the package.
  • Seven GOP senators — Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) — voted with Democrats.

The bill includes:

  • $370 billion for climate change.
  • Allows the federal health secretary to negotiate the prices of certain expensive drugs for Medicare.
  • Three-year extension on health care subsidies in the Affordable Care Act.
  • 15% minimum tax on corporations making $1 billion or more in income. The provision offers more than $300 billion in revenue.
  • IRS tax enforcement.
  • 1% excise tax on stock buybacks.

The significance of the climate portion: The bill is the largest investment in clean energy and emissions cuts the Senate has ever passed, with the climate portion totaling about $370 billion, Axios’ Andrew Freedman writes.

  • This includes tax incentives to manufacture and purchase electric vehicles, generate more wind and solar electricity and support fledgling technology such as direct air capture and hydrogen production.
  • Independent analyzes show the bill, combined with other ongoing emissions reductions, would cut as much as 40% of US greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, short of the White House’s 50% reduction target. However, if enacted into law, it would reestablish US credibility in international climate talks, which had been flagging due in part to congressional gridlock.

  • As part of Democrats’ concessions to Manchin, the bill also contains provisions calling for offshore oil lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska, and a commitment to take up a separate measure to ease the permitting of new energy projects.

What they’re saying: “Today, after more than a year of hard work, the Senate is making history. I am confident the Inflation Reduction Act will endure as one of the defining legislative feats of the 21st century,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) said.

  • “Our bill reduces inflation, lowers costs, creates millions of good-paying jobs and is the boldest climate package in US history. This bill will kick start the era of affordable clean energy in America. It’s a game changer, a turning point. And it’s been a long time coming.”
  • “Democrats have already robbed American families once through inflation, and now their solution is to rob American families a second time,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
  • President Biden praised the passage of the bill in a statement Sunday, saying, “Today, Senate Democrats sided with American families over special interests, voting to lower the cost of prescription drugs, health insurance, and everyday energy costs and reduce the deficit, while making the wealthiest corporations finally pay their fair share. I ran for President promising to make government work for working families again, and that is what this bill does — period.”

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More human remains found at Lake Mead as water levels drop in drought

More human remains found at Lake Mead as water levels drop in drought

National Park Service rangers found more human remains at the drought-hit Lake Mead National Recreation Area to the east of Las Vegas over the weekend.

Why it matters: It’s fourth such discovery in the nation’s largest reservoir by volume since May as a megadrought sinks Lake Mead’s water levels to the lowest since 1937, per AP.

Details: “National Park Service rangers received an emergency call reporting the discovery of human skeletal remains at Swim Beach in Lake Mead National Recreation Area,” Nevada, on Saturday morning, according to an NPS statement.

  • Park rangers worked to recover the remains with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s dive team, the NPS said.
  • The Clark County Medical Examiner is investigating the cause of death.

Driving the news: The Southwest is in the grip of a megadrought lasting more than two decades and studies show it’s more severe than any in at least 1,200 years, which is being driven in large part by climate change, Axios’ Andrew Freedman notes.

The big pictures: Lake Mead spans Nevada and Arizona and is part of the vast Colorado River basin that provides water for agriculture and human consumption to seven states, while also generating electricity at the massive Hoover Dam.

Go deeper: New Colorado River drought discovery shows how bad things can get

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Australia

‘The climate wars are nearly over’: Labor, teals and Greens take a win on emissions as Liberals watch on

'The climate wars are nearly over': Labor, teals and Greens take a win on emissions as Liberals watch on

Adam Bandt could have rightly felt bemused as he was walking through federal parliament.

Barely a day earlier, he’d announced the Greens’ bolstered political ranks would back Labor’s climate change bill, giving the new Prime Minister the votes he needed for landmark laws to reduce carbon emissions.

Bandt cut a lonely figure as he walked alone behind a press gaggle the size you so often only see for major party leaders.

In front of the microphones were six women, all but one new faces in a parliament more diverse than any that came before it.

If success has many fathers and failure is an orphan, then Labor’s climate change bill was a child with more parents than it could poke a stick at.

“The climate wars are nearly over,” Zali Steggall cautiously said.

Zali Steggal speaks at a press conference at parliament house
Zali Steggall is providing a mentor for the teal independents who have followed her into parliament. (ABC News: Nick Haggarty)

pure political maths

In many ways, Labor and the crossbench have plenty to celebrate after this week.

Labor, once the legislation passes the Senate, will have enshrined laws in a policy area fraught with toppling prime ministers.

Bandt too has done what former leaders of his party baulked at.

Arguably, he’s transforming the Greens from a movement to a political party by adopting a pragmatic approach that gets something, even if it’s not as much as his party might have wanted.

And the teals were successful in making minor amendments, ensuring they could go back to their communities by selling a win.

But suggestions that Australian politics has been radically changed since the election are certainly premature.

“Teals get a win and we get a win” is how one in Labor dubbed it.

What was at play was pure political maths.

Labor knows that if the teals succeed, it all but consigns the Coalition to the opposition benches.

The teal amendments didn’t require the government to add anything it didn’t want to.

It was the Greens who delivered Labor the votes it needed, or at least will when the Senate considers the laws later this year.

It’s why Bandt could be forgiven if he was frustrated that the teals were attracting the credit at their press conference for what was, in fact, a gift his party had given the government.

Yet to just view this in purely political win-loss metrics perhaps misunderstands both the election and broader political movement.

A row of women wearing masks walks towards the camera down a corridor.
The teal MPs have stuck closely together during the first sitting fortnight.(ABC News: Nick Haggarty)

Taking the ‘fight’ out

Zali Steggall led the teals to their press conference early on Thursday morning.

She’s not the first community-backed independent to arrive in Canberra but there’s no doubt she created the mold the teals have followed.

“Just a brief thank you to Zali Steggall, who worked tirelessly over the last three years for us to be in this position,” Sydneysider Sophie Scamps said at the press conference.

Steggall is proving not just a mentor among the teals but also a bridge between new and old members of the crossbench and with the government.

What unites these independents is they’re political newbies, leaders in their former lives, now setting their sights on doing politics differently.

Lisa Chesters holds her son, who is giggling with Anne Aly
Anne Aly happily entertained Lisa Chesters’ son Charlie during the climate change debate.(ABC News: Nick Haggarty )

You only had to hear Kylea Tink to get a sense that conventional political thinking is the last thing on her mind.

After a journalist quoted the Greens saying the “fight” was just beginning to force the government to be more ambitious, she argued that it was the wrong approach.

Tink said it should be the “planning” that starts now and that politicians across the political aisle needed to work together, rather than fight.

She also was quick to “reframe” a question being put to the crossbenchers.

“The comment you just made was that the government doesn’t need my vote as a crossbencher to get this legislation through,” Tink said.

“That may be the case but any government that seeks to lead the nation needs to take its people with it.

“What we’ve seen here is a government that recognizes that just because you don’t sit on a side on the government’s side doesn’t mean that your community’s voice doesn’t matter.

“If I wasn’t an independent, it wouldn’t have been heard.”

Adam Bandt holds out his arm while speaking in the House of Representatives
Adam Bandt’s Greens delivered the government the votes it needed to legislate an emissions reduction target.(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

‘The Liberals have disenfranchised people’

After the first sitting fortnight, some in the building have wondered if the teals are yet to regret entering politics.

At least a couple of moments from the week might have given them moments of doubt about their new career.

As bells rang for politicians to vote on the climate bills, Tink and Scamps were regularly spotted darting out of the chamber, returning minutes later before the bells stopped ringing.

Their distraction, it transpired, were pieces of toast being consumed outside the chamber. Finding time to eat in Canberra is no longer something you can do on a whim.

Victorian Monique Ryan, too, might have had pangs of doubt after one of her staff pulled down her mask during that press conference and pushed her fingers up the sides of her mouth, signaling for her boss to smile.

Being told to smile was arguably something she’d have never heard as she ran the neurology department of the Royal Children’s Hospital.

She didn’t need to be told to smile as she found her way to the microphone and took aim at the Liberals who refused to negotiate with the government over the emissions target.

“This is just the end of the beginning in our action on climate change,” Ryan said.

“To make progress, to be at the table you have to have a voice at the table and in taking themselves out of the discussion, the Liberals have disenfranchised the people in the electorates they represent.”

Tasmanian Liberal Bridget Archer likely agrees.

She again proved she’s willing to do what so often men in her party appear unable to follow through on — saying they’ll cross the floor on an issue and actually doing it.

Bridget Archer speaks with Zoe Daniel while voting for Labor's climate bill
Bridget Archer was the only Coalition MP to vote for the government’s climate bill.(ABC News: Nick Haggarty )

But it’s far from perfect

The teals arrived in Canberra after their communities turfed out the Liberals who had long dominated the electorates they now hold.

They’ve been pleasantly surprised at the spirit of collaboration that they’ve found in Labor — at least for now.

But no-one is saying parliament is anywhere near perfect.

“We’re still seeing in Question Time old-style politics play out,” Steggall says.

“I don’t think it impresses many of us and it certainly doesn’t impress the Australian public.”

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Categories
Australia

Thrifty school-formal theme as students borrow, swap and op shop for outfits in name of sustainable fashion

Two young women dressed beautifully for their formal

Can you imagine wearing the same suit your dad wore for his 21st birthday to your formal school?

In regional Victoria, some students have borrowed, swapped and op-shopped to make a statement about fast fashion and climate change.

After missing out on many school-age rites of passage through the pandemic, one school put on a dance with a difference.

Year 11 Emmanuel College students trawled through op shops, their parents’ and grandparents’ wardrobes, and swapped outfits for their first-ever Recycled Dance.

The thrifty theme invented by the students was also about tackling fast fashion, a growing threat to the environment.

A group of girls dressed well in formal gear, from recycled shops.
Students trawled through op shops and their parents’ wardrobes, and swapped outfits.(Supplied)

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Categories
US

Parliamentarian weakens Democrats’ drug plan in Inflation Reduction Act, as Senate prepares to vote

Parliamentarian weakens Democrats' drug plan in Inflation Reduction Act, as Senate prepares to vote

The Senate parliamentarian on Saturday dealt a blow to Democrats’ plan for curbing drug prices but left the rest of their sprawling economic bill largely intact as party leaders prepared for the first votes on a package containing many of President Joe Biden’s top domestic goals.

Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s nonpartisan rules arbitrator, said lawmakers must remove language imposing hefty penalties on drugmakers that increase their prices beyond inflation in the private insurance market. Those were the bill’s chief pricing protections for the roughly 180 million people whose health coverage comes from private insurance, either through work or bought on their own.

Other major provisions were left intact, including giving Medicare the power to negotiate what it pays for pharmaceuticals for its 64 million elderly recipients, a longtime goal for Democrats. Penalties on manufacturers for exceeding inflation would apply to drugs sold to Medicare, and there is a $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on drug costs and free vaccines for Medicare beneficiaries.

Her rulings came as Democrats planned to begin Senate votes Saturday on their wide-ranging package addressing climate change, energy, health care costs, taxes and even deficit reduction. Party leaders have said they believe they have the unity they will need to move the legislation through the 50-50 Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris expected to cast votes to break ties, since all of the Republicans are expected to oppose the bill.

“This is a major win for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said of the bill, which both parties are using in their election-year campaigns to assign blame for the worst period of inflation in four decades.

“At a time of seemingly impenetrable gridlock, the inflation reduction act will show the American people that when the moment demands it, Congress is still capable of taking big steps to solve big challenges,” Schumer said. “We will show the American people that, yes, we are capable of passing a historic climate package and rein in drug companies and make our tax code fairer.”

In response, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Democrats “are misreading the American people’s outrage as a mandate for yet another reckless taxing and spending spree.” He said Democrats “have already robbed American families once through inflation and now their solution is to rob American families yet a second time.”

Dropping penalties on drugmakers reduces incentives on pharmaceutical companies to restrain what they charge, increasing costs for patients.

Erasing that language will cut the $288 billion in 10-year savings that the Democrats’ overall drug curbs were estimated to generate — a reduction of perhaps tens of billions of dollars, analysts have said.

Schumer said MacDonough’s decision about the price cap for private insurance was “one unfortunate ruling.” But he said the surviving drug pricing language represented “a major victory for the American people” and that the overall bill “remains largely intact.”

The ruling followed a 10-day period that saw Democrats resurrect top components of Biden’s agenda that had seemed dead. In rapid-fire deals with Democrats’ two most unpredictable senators — first conservative Joe Manchin of West Virginia, then Arizona centrist Kyrsten Sinema — Schumer pieced together a broad package that, while a fraction of earlier, larger versions that Manchin derailed, would give the party an achievement against the backdrop of this fall’s congressional elections.

The parliamentarian also signed off on a fee on excess emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas contributor, from oil and gas drilling. She also let stand environmental grants to minority communities and other initiatives for reducing carbon emissions, said Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Thomas Carper, D-Del.

She approved a provision requiring union-scale wages to be paid if energy efficiency projects are to qualify for tax credits, and another that would limit electric vehicle tax credits to those cars and trucks assembled in the United States.

The overall measure faces unanimous Republican opposition. But assuming Democrats fight off a nonstop “vote-a-rama” of amendments — many designed by Republicans to derail the measure — they should be able to muscle the measure through the Senate.

The House is returning Friday to vote on the bill.

“What will vote-a-rama be like. It will be like hell,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said Friday of the approaching GOP amendments. He said that in supporting the Democratic bill, Manchin and Sinema “are empowering legislation that will make the average person’s life more difficult” by forcing up energy costs with tax increases and making it harder for companies to hire workers.

The bill offers spending and tax incentives for moving toward cleaner fuels and supporting coal with assistance for reducing carbon emissions. Expiring subsidies that help millions of people afford private insurance premiums would be extended for three years, and there is $4 billion to help Western states combat drought.

There would be a new 15% minimum tax on some corporations that earn over $1 billion annually but pay far less than the current 21% corporate tax. There would also be a 1% tax on companies that buy back their own stock, swapped in after Sinema refused to support higher taxes on private equity firm executives and hedge fund managers. The IRS budget would be pumped up to strengthen its tax collections.

While the bill’s final costs are still being determined, it overall would spend more than $300 billion over 10 years to slow climate change, which analysts say would be the country’s largest investment in that effort, and billions more on health care. It would raise more than $700 billion in taxes and from government drug cost savings, leaving about $300 billion for deficit reduction — a modest bite out of projected 10-year shortfalls of many trillions of dollars.

Democrats are using special procedures that would let them pass the measure without having to reach the 60-vote majority that legislation often needs in the Senate.

It is the parliamentarian’s job to decide whether parts of legislation must be dropped for violating those rules, which include a requirement that provisions be chiefly aimed at affecting the federal budget, not imposing new policy.

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Categories
Entertainment

Anger over private jet emissions: Tom Cruise, Kylie Jenner, Taylor Swift among A-listers named and shamed

Anger over private jet emissions: Tom Cruise, Kylie Jenner, Taylor Swift among A-listers named and shamed

Quaffing champagne at 40,000ft, flying from glitzy party to awards dos and back again in time for bed — it’s a hard life being an A-lister with your own luxury jet.

But the high life has come under fire this week, as celebrities are being named and shamed for their excessive use of private plans.

A single private jet emits as much carbon dioxide in an hour as the average person does in an entire year, with private flights 14 times more polluting (per passenger) than a commercial plane.

Yet their super-rich owners — many of whom boast about their apparent eco credentials — are hopping on and off their jets for trips that last less than 15 minutes. Using data compiled by an international flight tracker, British marketing agency Yard compiled a list of the worst offenders.

So whose plane is the worst polluter? And who’s the biggest climate hypocrite among the high fliers?

Kylie Jenner

THE JET: Kim Kardashian’s younger sister Kylie has been labeled a “climate criminal” for repeated short haul trips on her £60 million jet. Last month, the billionaire social media star, 24, shared a picture on Instagram showing two private plans — her own de ella and one belonging to her rapper boyfriend, Travis Scott — with the smug caption: “You wanna take mine or yours ?”.

She bought the all-white 59.6ft-long Bombardier Global 7500 on a reported spending spree in 2020.

The exterior features her name and a Barbie-pink strip, while the interiors have white seats, pink satin pillows and eye masks (bearing ‘Kylie Skin’, the name of her make-up range) and colored lights that can be set to different hues depending on the time of day. There are Hermes blankets for guests, two bathrooms, a master suite and an on-board wardrobe.

FLIGHTS TAKEN: 64 this year.

SHORTEST FLIGHT: 12 minutes (Van Nuys to Camarillo, both in California).

CO2 EMITTED: 1,682.7 tons — 240 times the average person.

ECO BOASTS: Kylie prides herself on buying eco-friendly products for her daughter Stormi, four, and made her make-up range vegan last year, telling followers she was going ‘vegan and clean’ because it was ‘time to elevate’ for the planet.

TAYLOR SWIFT

THE JET: The 32-year-old singer — worth an estimated £470 million — bought her private plane, a £33 million Dassault-Breguet Mystere falcon 900, in 2011. With its plush cream interiors and in-built flat screen TVs, it features 18 fully reclining seats and a distinctive number 13 on the side (her lucky number and birth date in December).

She used to own two jets but sold the smaller one (worth a mere £4.9 million) in early 2020.

FLIGHTS TAKEN: 170 this year

SHORTEST FLIGHT: 36 minutes (Missouri to Nashville, Tennessee).

CO2 EMITTED: 8,293.54 tons — 1,185 times the average person’s annual carbon emissions of seven tons.

ECO BOASTS: in 2020, Taylor was branded a “sustainable fashion influencer” by Vogue. In another interview that same year, she branded climate change a “horrific situation.”

A representative defended her apparent air miles, saying that her jet is “loaned out regularly to other individuals”. They added: “To attribute most or all of these trips to her de ella is blatantly incorrect”.

OPRAH WINFREY

THE JET: With an estimated net worth of more than £2 billion, it’s no wonder TV host Oprah has her own posh plane. The 68-year-old bought a £62 million Gulfstream G650 in 2016, reportedly after becoming irritated when a female fan asked her for a hug while she was waiting in an airport queue.

The opulent jet, which can comfortably fit 16, is divided into four themed areas: dine, work, entertain and relax.

There’s a double bed, a conference room and a dining area as well as an on-board chef.

FLIGHTS TAKEN: 68 this year.

SHORTEST FLIGHT: 14 minutes (Van Nuys to Santa Barbara, California).

CO2 EMITTED: 3,493.17 tons — 499 times the average person.

ECO BOASTS: “The future of life as we know it is being determined by everything we’re doing — and not doing — now,” wrote Oprah, in a 2019 post calling on fans to do their bit for the environment.

MARK WAHLBERG

THE JET: actor Mark, 51, owns a £9.9 million Bombardier global Express jet, which he bought in 2016. The top-of-the-range model — which he had renovated at vast expense last year — has a large ‘W’ on the tail and such a spacious cabin that the fitness-obsessed star can do workouts on board.

Pictures from his social media show soft beige furnishings and polished wood, as well as several screens so his four children can benefit from the high-speed wi-fi. Mark came under fire last month for taking a series of short flights from London to Dublin (48 minutes) and then on to Shannon (23 minutes) for a round of golf.

FLIGHTS TAKEN: 101 this year.

SHORTEST FLIGHT: nine minutes (Los Angeles to Van Nuys, California).

CO2 EMITTED: 3,772.85 tons — 538.9 times the average person.

ECO BOASTS: in 2020, Mark publicly pledged to give up meat and dairy to reduce its impact on the planet. Yet he has said his jet from him is his “personal 21st century transporter” that takes him “anywhere in the world”.

Kim Kardashian

THE JET: Bedecked in cashmere, the reality TV star’s £124 million jet, ‘Kim Air’, is as gaudy as you might expect. Kim, 41, owns a Gulfstream G650ER, a blingier version of the plans belonging to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

Hers has been customized inside and out, masterminded by interior designer Waldo Fernandez, whose clients have also included Elizabeth Taylor and Brad Pitt. The 18-seater jet features wood paneling, two beds and two bathrooms as well as ‘enhanced air ionisation’, which recreates a fresh breeze at high altitude.

Guests wear slippers from Skims, Kim’s underwear brand, lest they muddy the carpet.

FLIGHTS TAKEN: 57 this year.

SHORTEST FLIGHT: Ten minutes (Van Nuys to Camarillo, California).

CO2 EMITTED: 4,268.5 tons — 609.8 times the average person.

ECO BOASTS: The reality star has spoken in the past about wanting her businesses to be more environmentally-friendly. In 2019, she praised climate activist Greta Thunberg, and, a year later, she tweeted: ‘Climate change is real’ alongside an emoji of a broken heart.

TOM CRUISE*

THE JET: The Top Gun star, 60, owns not one but five private jets — the most opulent of which is the 19-seat Gulfstream IV, worth around £16.5 million.

The aircraft, nicknamed the limousine of the jet world, is decked out with a Jacuzzi and top-of-the-range cinema room, as well as elegant soft furnishings. The actor often flies his private plans himself, having qualified for his pilot’s license in 1994. He also sends them on gratuitous gifting missions around the world.

Last Christmas, he reportedly flew 300 cakes by private jet from his favorite bakery in California to London for the cast and crew of the Mission: Impossible film franchise — a round trip of 5,500 miles.

FLIGHTS TAKEN: 20.

SHORTEST FLIGHT: 12 minutes (Shannon to Killarney, Ireland).

CO2 EMITTED: 149.6 tons — 21.4 times the average person.

ECO BOASTS: In 2019, Tom was among the A-listers criticized for flying privately to Google’s climate change camp in 2019, a faux pas he repeated this May when he took one of his jets to the eco-friendly Cannes film festival.

* Flight data only collected since June 10.

FLOYD MAYWEATHER

THE JET: One of the ‘richest sportsmen of all time’ (his career earnings top £900 million) the 45-year-old retired boxer owns a £50 million Gulfstream G650 jet called ‘Air Mayweather’.

Floyd bought it for his 41st birthday and shares images enjoying massages, haircuts and poker games aboard.

On the outside, the 12-seater jet features the boxer’s surname alongside the letters ‘TBE’ — ‘The Best Ever’.

Floyd also has a fleet of personal pilots, who wear branded uniforms with the insignia ‘TMT’ or ‘The Money Team’.

FLIGHTS TAKEN: 177 this year.

SHORTEST FLIGHT: Ten minutes (within Las Vegas).

CO2 EMITTED: 7,076.8 tons — 1,011 times the average person.

ECO BOASTS: Floyd makes flippant comments about his jet, such as: “When you live this lifestyle, you just wing it”.

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