Good morning and happy Friday,

This week we’re celebrating the first anniversary of the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which is already delivering significant positive impacts across the country – including in West Virginia, where a steel mill is being converted into an iron-air battery manufacturing plant.

And following the good news about FERC Order No. 23 a few weeks ago, the U.S. DOE has proposed a rule to accelerate federal environmental review and permitting for onshore transmission. Meanwhile, Algonquin Power announced that it will pursue the sale of its renewable energy business, and some hard-right members of the Republican party continue to push the climate denialism envelope.

Read on for more.

This week, the New York Times ran a three-part series of articles examining various facets of the clean energy future, including the speed with which cleaner options are being embraced, the forces stalling progress, and the importance of messaging that “meets people where they are.” Here’s a very high-level summary:

• The first article, The Clean Energy Future Is Arriving Faster Than You Think, looks at the massive investments pouring into clean energy, including an expected $1.7 trillion this year alone. Even in parts of the U.S. that are diehard bastions of fossil fuels, the economics of cleaner alternatives are winning folks over. 
• The second, The Clean Energy Future Is Roiling Both Friends and Foes, looks at the myriad obstacles impeding progress on the energy transition, from yearslong permitting and approval processes to community opposition, which is often inflated by non-local actors opposed to renewables. 
• The final article, The Clean Energy Future Is a Battle for Hearts and Minds,explores messaging dos and don’ts from the front lines, and finds that economic incentives are much more effective than talk about climate change. “‘Political messaging and press announcements’ will not convince anyone, ‘But a paycheck might."

Enlightened evangelism. A key driver in all of the above is the IRA, which has unleashed an estimated $76 billion in investment and created more than 66,000 jobs in its first year. About 70% of that investment has gone to deep red parts of the country less receptive of environmental messaging. “That’s perhaps why those pitching [clean energy] technology often avoid mentioning climate change. They emulate evangelists who don’t lead with Jesus when trying to win over nonbelievers.”

As reported in last week’s Dispatch, a new study from NREL (published in the journal Nature Energy) looks at the rapid proliferation of setback requirements across the U.S., and the impact this could have on decarbonizing the nation’s electricity supply. Here are some key takeaways:

• The study is the first of its kind and is significant because earlier large-scale assessments of resource availability didn’t take the impact of setbacks into account – therefore almost certainly overestimating the amount of land available to renewables and “underestimat(ing) the cost and challenges of achieving high levels of deployment.” 
• The study explores three scenarios, ranging from no setbacks to very restrictive ordinances. In the former, the technical potential for wind and solar are 14 and 147 terawatts respectively, but restrictive setbacks could slash wind’s available capacity by 87% to 2 terawatts, and solar’s available capacity by 38% to 121 terawatts.
• Even under this most-restrictive scenario, 93 terawatts of renewables is still enough to decarbonize the electricity system. However, such a scenario would likely have dramatic impacts on both the quality and the cost of that renewable energy, and “will determine how much [it is] leveraged in the pursuit of decarbonization.”

Hear, hear. As the lead author of the report observes, “It’s really important that we understand the impacts of renewable development on communities and provide information that helps them develop ordinances that balance regulation of the real impacts of renewable energy development while enabling deployment and the benefits of that deployment.” We couldn’t agree more.

• Landmark: Judge Rules in Favor of Montana Youths in Climate Case
• Eh?: Canadian renewables groups slam Alberta's pause on wind and solar projects
• Moral Inventory: Accounting for the materials needed to build wind and solar farms
• Peachy:How GOP-dominated Georgia became a hub for clean energy jobs
• Near-shore: Great Lakes gets its first wind farm — but some fear environmental fallout

• Delaware County, Indiana Commissioners voted to extend solar moratorium. 
• Woodbury County, Iowa denies CUP for utility-scale solar on agricultural land.
• Brewer, Maine voted to temporarily prohibit large commercial solar developments.
• Decatur Township, Michigan turns down proposal allowing solar on designated agricultural land.

We’ve all heard tales of outrageous prices in government contracts, from coffee makers that cost more than $7,000 to toilet seat covers that cost $10,000. But have you heard about the $1.2 billion vacuum? To be clear, this puppy will be able to do a bit more than your Roomba (although we wouldn’t let the cat ride on it).

Climeworks AG is a Swiss company that has developed a certified direct air capture (DAC) process for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and injecting it several hundreds of meters below the Earth’s surface, where it turns to stone.

Last week Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced that the Biden administration will spend $1.2 billion to support construction of the first two commercial-scale plants in the U.S. Everyone agrees carbon capture isn’t a silver bullet in the fight against climate change, but supporters of DAC say it will be an important weapon in the world’s arsenal.

Not everyone is convinced. Former Vice President Al Gore says DAC creates a “moral hazard” that gives fossil fuel producers license to continue to pollute, not to mention that the technology is extremely expensive and so energy intensive as to make it pointless. Oil and gas companies say that with time, the process will become more efficient and less expensive. Stay tuned.