The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announcedinvestments from the Biden-Harris Inflation Reduction Act to lower energy costs and grow clean power across nine states. The $3 billion funding from the New Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program will go to rural energy cooperatives in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Minnesota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today released the final rule on the 45X tax credit, a production tax credit meant to grow domestic manufacturing for solar, wind, batteries, and critical materials. Federal investments and tax credits in manufacturing and climate action—made possible by the Biden-Harris administration’s Inflation Reduction Act—have the potential to create 900,000 jobs by 2032. 

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the selection of 14 projects to address critical clean energy supply chain vulnerabilities and grow domestic clean energy manufacturing in 12 states. The funding from the Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program will help revitalize communities affected by coal mine or coal power plant closures.   

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Cleveland Cliffs funding from their Industrial Demonstrations Program (IDP) to get the first phase of a low-carbon steel project underway in Middletown, Ohio. The company plans to install a hydrogen-ready flex-fuel Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) plant and two electric melting furnaces at the facility. The hydrogen DRI process being used in the Middletown plant is a game-changing technology that promises dramatic reductions in the carbon intensity of primary steel and a boost to the competitiveness of US steelmaking. 

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) unveiled the American Energy Worker Opportunity Act. The bill would provide comprehensive support for coal and oil refinery workers as we shift to a clean energy economy.

Since announcing Nippon Steel Corporation’s bid to buy U.S. Steel, Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel have waged an aggressive persuasion, advertising, and lobbying blitz to influence elected officials to approve their takeover.

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced more than $49 million in grants from the Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities (WORC) program. The grants will support 35 projects across 18 states and will help workers in rural America get prepared for jobs in high-demand sectors.

The Bluegreen Alliance today released a new report, Then and Now: US Manufacturing Under the Trump and Biden-Harris Administrations, which compares the success and failures of the last two administrations’ manufacturing agendas.

Taking a critical look at the industrial policies of the current Biden-Harris administration and the former Trump administration, we see a dramatic shift. On several points—including job creation, investment in manufacturing, investment in cleaning up industrial emissions, and domestic momentum in growing industries—we see that the Biden-Harris administration outperformed the Trump administration.

Today marks two years since President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law—a historic investment in clean energy and manufacturing. The law is working across the nation to create good-paying, union jobs in clean energy and manufacturing for the workers and communities that need them the most, while reducing the emissions driving climate change.

It has been months since 2017’s historic hurricane season laid waste to Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Texas, and Florida, in some areas destroying critical infrastructure systems, plunging millions of Americans into darkness, and further aggravating an already desperate need for safe water.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded $160 million in grants to spur the production of environmental product declarations (EPDs). As a critical element of the Biden-Harris administration’s Federal Buy Clean Initiative and the Inflation Reduction Act, EPDs help provide transparency around the embodied emissions associated with the production of infrastructure materials such as steel, concrete, asphalt, and flat glass.