The U.S. Budget Reconciliation and Its Implications for Climate Tech
The U.S. Budget Reconciliation and Its Implications for Climate Change
by Justin Field
As many of you know, this week, the U.S. House cleared a $3.5 trillion budget resolution unlocking "reconciliation" rules that will allow Democrats to pass a major spending package on a party-line vote in the Senate. This package is expected to focus on a range of domestic priorities, including health care, education and workforce development, social programs, and climate. Viewed in conjunction with earlier Senate passage of the $100 billion Endless Frontier Act and the $550 billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, two other bills with tens of billions of dollars in climate-related investments, this Congress is clearly undertaking the most substantial effort to address the climate crisis in our nation's history.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the driving force behind these efforts, recently released an analysis on the impact of programs they plan to include in the $3.5 Trillion Reconciliation Package and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package. According to the analysis, the proposed programs would reduce U.S. carbon emissions to "approximately 45% beneath 2005 levels by 2030." If successful, these efforts will not only substantially reduce the U.S. carbon footprint but could dramatically accelerate the global energy transition and give us the best opportunity we may ever have to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.
These bills are a concerted effort to support innovation in a range of critical climate-related technologies, including those focused on clean energy sources and storage, transportation and mobility, carbon capture and utilization, water and agriculture, and smart city and infrastructure. Fortunately, these efforts are coming at a historical and serendipitous moment for climate action. Clean energy sources utilizing existing technologies are now becoming price competitive with fossil fuels. In addition, venture capitalists just deployed a record $12.7 billion into a new generation of climate and sustainability technology startups in 2020 and are on track to smash that record this year.
The pace at which we innovate in these areas will dictate much of our success. Innovation brings more powerful and efficient technologies online and substantially reduces the cost of existing technologies, making their deployment more accessible to families, businesses, and governments.
To put this in perspective, let's look at the adoption rates of the U.S. home computer. Access to home computer technology rapidly expanded partly due to the pace of innovation in the power of semiconductors (think Moore's Law). This innovation sharply drove down the cost of computing power, making a personal device less expensive. In 1984, 8.2% of U.S. households had a home computer. That number rose to 50% in 2000 and 90% in 2016. Today, home computers and laptops have become ubiquitous, and smartphones have far outpaced the power of the early 80s computers. Replicating this pace of technology adoption for climate will not be easy, but between private sector trends and legislative momentum, our best chance is now.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has several programs that will provide grants to state and local governments and utilities for the acquisition of new technologies. These new grant programs will also support research and technology commercialization in private companies, domestic climate manufacturing, and new offices meant to increase government domain expertise in emerging technology trends. While a draft of the Democratic reconciliation package has yet to be released, we hear that there will be many climate programs, including a Clean Electricity Payment Program, a number of grants, research support, and consumer incentive programs, and a significant climate tax package that should include a direct pay mechanism to open eligibility to startups and a new energy storage credit.
There are plenty of uncertainties as to whether innovative startups will actively participate as the mechanics of a lot of these programs will be decided through the regulatory process, and state and local procurement processes have historically been difficult for startups to access. Details in these programs matter a great deal for startups, as we all so painfully remember from the PPP debates last year, so we will work through the process to identify and target any issues that may unintentionally exclude startups and growth companies.
The startup ecosystem has been at the forefront of launching new industries in the United States in the modern economy. Discoveries and innovations include semiconductors and the home computer, biotechnology, the internet, and mRNA technology, to name a few. If we get this right, we'll look back on 2021 as the year things finally came together for the climate. But first, we need to get it right.
🎙Startup Series
This week, Jason sat down with Bessie Schwarz, Co-Founder & CEO, and Dr. Beth Tellman, Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer, at Cloud to Street. Cloud to Street uses global satellites and remote sensing AI to monitor flood risk and detect worldwide floods in real-time. Seeded by Google, Cloud to Street provides disaster relief support and data to governments in almost 20 countries worldwide. We are also proud to have backed Cloud to Street via our fund, MCJ Collective!
✨Highlights
Climate Jobs
For more open positions, check out the #climatejobs channel in MCJ Slack.
Nitricity is hiring, the agtech startup up is looking for roles across biz dev, product, and engineering. See open positions here
Cloverly, a carbon offset software startup is hiring a full-stack Python engineer and an FE engineer
Raptor Maps, a startup that builds software to manage the solar lifecycle, is hiring an engineering manager
Farm is a platform for restoring undervalued land in America, starting with the Great Plains. The startup is hiring a Head of Finance
Rocky Mountain Institute is hiring a Principal for Equity in Energy Solutions
American Battery Technology Company (ABTC) is creating a circular economy for lithium battery materials; currently hiring a Director of Human Resources and a Battery Recycling Plant Manager
Elemental Accelerator is hiring across many positions, including In-house Counsel, Equity & Access Career Pathways Manager, Equity & Access Partnerships Manager, Communications Production Manager, Head of Philanthropic Partnerships, and Investor in Residence
Climate Events
For more community events, check out the #events channel in Slack or the MCJ Calendar on Luma.
🧑💻Lowercarbon Capital AMA with Clay Dumas (starts at 12 pm ET on 8/30! RSVP) MCJ is hosting an AMA with Clay Dumas from Lowercarbon Capital! Clay will be answering questions for 48 hours about the $800m Lowercarbon just raised to “keep unf*cking the planet.” (Please note, this is an asynchronous, Reddit-style AMA. When you RSVP you will be redirected to the #mcj-ama channel)
📚MCJ Book Club (8/31 at 6 pm PT RSVP) This month we're reading The New Climate War by Michael Mann! Check out the #study-group in MCJ Slack for more info.
📋Member Orientation (9/2 at 12 pm ET RSVP) Hosted by MCJ’s own Thai Nguyen, to help onboard recently joined and existing members to the community. Attendees can expect a casual conversation about how to navigate the community.
📢DEI Climate Justice Monthly Meet-up (9/3 at 12 pm ET RSVP) Join us for the monthly DEI-Climate Justice meeting! Check out the #dei-climatejustice channel for more.
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