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How Dems Learned From Obamacare To Get Climate Cash To Cities

Four states rejected the Biden administration’s offer of $3 million in funding for climate action, but the president’s signature climate change law provisions ensured that the largest cities had access to the funding anyway. That could happen, E&E News reported Wednesday.

Inflation Relief Act (IRA) provisions allow the state’s three largest cities to apply for funding if the state denies the opportunity, prompting a Republican governor’s attempt to block Medicaid funding. It is a move by the Democratic Party to avoid the possibility of a repetition of Act on Adjustment of Medical Expenses, according to to E&E. Of the four states that refused funding (Florida, South Dakota, Iowa, and Kentucky), three had Republican governors, and Kentucky’s Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, is traditionally coal-rich and conservative. The state is in trouble for re-election, The Washington Post reported. report. (Related: Biden’s ‘high-paying union jobs’ could cost taxpayers millions apiece and offer low wages: report)

“It really works,” Trevor Higgins, senior vice president of energy and environment at the Center for American Progress, told E&E. “Many cities were targeted, and most states, even most Republican states, decided they would be better off accepting the money and making their own plans,” he said.

While many Republican-led states have chosen to accept funds rather than hand them over to Democratic-led city governments, the governors of Florida, South Dakota and Iowa have voiced their opposition to “wasteful” spending and the administration’s climate change policies. cited as a reason. The Post reported that it declined funding. Beshear has avoided the term even though gubernatorial challenger Kentucky Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron has attempted to link him to Biden’s “radical” climate change policies. rice field.

Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet spokesman John Mulla told the Post, “The Beshear administration is providing numerous federal grants to advance efforts to build a better Kentucky for all Kentucky people. We are actively applying and receiving them.” “In this case, local governments are in the best position to apply for and manage climate pollution reduction subsidies.”

E&E News reports that the governor’s response has faced backlash from the state’s largest cities, Louisville, Lexington and Bowling Green. Sumedda Rao, executive director of the Louisville mayor’s Sustainability Department, told the media it was “a little disappointing that we are missing out on a statewide opportunity” that other states had.

Rao told E&E, noting that about two-thirds of the state lives outside the county, “I’ve seen some cities in other states working with state authorities on these efforts. And I think we need to work on that ourselves.” largest city. “There will be many smaller cities that will be completely left out of this effort.”

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is currently facing a tough battle with frontrunner Donald Trump for the party’s presidential nomination, according to the Times, but other federal climate action is on the rise. It has blocked or withdrawn funding opportunities. DeSantis recently told Fox Business that his climate plan is to “rip up Joe Biden’s Green New Deal” and “embrace energy at home.”

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