With Millions Still Out of Work, We Need Biden’s American Jobs Plan
Originally published on the NRDC Expert Blog.
By Mitchell Bernard
Today’s unemployment numbers out of Washington affirm what the country’s experiencing on Main Street: a grinding climb from a devastating pandemic that’s taking a continuing toll on the economic security of our people. It’s great news that unemployment is falling. But 9.3 million Americans remain out of work.
President Biden has proposed the right remedy — the American Jobs Plan, a comprehensive package of strategic public investment that weds climate action to equitable recovery and puts people back to work in every community.
This is a bold vision for strong, lasting, and broad-based recovery. It sets the table for a generation of prosperity and progress. It means cleaner, healthier communities, both urban and rural. As the plan makes its way through Congress, it’s time for all of us to rally around it.
The American Jobs Plan is a stirring vote of confidence in the nation’s future. It’s built on the belief that U.S. workers can out-compete anyone in the world when given a fighting chance. That’s what this plan does.
It sets us on the path to 100 percent clean electricity by 2035 — wiping out nearly a third of the dangerous carbon pollution that’s driving the climate crisis — by helping to clean up the nation’s power sector.
It speeds the transition to electric cars and trucks with zero tailpipe emissions, expands sustainable transit options for those who need them most, and reconnects urban neighborhoods divided for decades by misguided highway routes.
It protects our communities from the risks and toxic pollution from more than 3.1 million abandoned oil and gas wells and coal mines, by capping and cleaning up these idled fossil fuel sites as we shift to cleaner, smarter ways to power our future.
And it ends the ongoing and unacceptable exposure to hazardous drinking water in as many as 10 million American homes, by replacing lead pipes and service lines with safe and modern alternatives, while upgrading wastewater, drinking water, and stormwater systems nationwide.
These are essential national priorities. Cleaning up our dirty cars, trucks, and power plants. Capping abandoned wells and mines. Getting the lead out of our drinking water.
Combined with other vital work, such as rebuilding aging bridges, roads, and ports, this investment will create or sustain 15 million jobs over the coming decade, a Georgetown University analysis shows, including 8 million for workers that require only a high school education or less.
These are good-paying jobs for welders, carpenters, truck drivers, electricians, steelworkers, and others, including those who want the collective bargaining opportunities that come from belonging to a union.
The clean energy sector offers multiple advantages: It pays 25 percent more than the average job for some 3 million workers who help to make our homes, cars, and workplaces more efficient; it builds electric and low-emission cars, trucks, and parts; it gets more clean power from the wind and sun; and it modernizes the grid and storage system we depend on for reliable power.
That’s core work in the American Jobs Plan. It’s how we roll up our sleeves and make good on Biden’s pledge to cut the U.S. carbon footprint in half by 2030, so we can stop adding carbon pollution to the atmosphere altogether by 2050.
That’s what the science tells us must happen — at home and abroad — if we’re to avert the worst of a climate crisis that last year alone inflicted more than $95 billion in damage nationwide, while combining with fossil fuel pollution to impose another $820 billion in health-care costs on our people.
Confronting this costly crisis will be the economic play of our lifetime, with clean energy investments set to attract more than $11 trillion in global capital in the space of this generation alone.
The American Jobs Plan will help make the United States a clean energy superpower — and make U.S. companies and workers the winners in the global clean energy sweepstakes.
The plan includes investments to plus-up research and investment in critical new technologies; support innovation to make U.S. factories more efficient; strengthen the domestic supply chain for the next generation of wind, solar, and battery technology; and expand training for workers looking to transition out of fading industries like fossil fuels and into more promising opportunities elsewhere.
Strengthening our economy. Putting our people back to work. Cleaning up toxic pollution that threatens our health. Standing up to the mounting costs and growing dangers of climate change.
These are the pillars of the American Jobs Plan — strategic investment that’s paid for by asking fossil fuel companies, other corporations, and those earning more than $400,000 a year to pay their fair share to support the kind of progress that’s enabled them to thrive. Investing in efficiency, meanwhile, will enable us to do more with less waste in our homes, workplaces and cars, cutting energy costs for our families and businesses.
Small wonder, then, that the plan is supported by nearly two-thirds of the country.
The American Jobs Plan accomplishes one thing more: It addresses what the pandemic has made all the more urgent.
A modern plague that has killed 600,000 people across the United States alone, the coronavirus pandemic has upended the lives of us all. No one is surprised to learn who’s suffered most: primarily the same low-income communities and people of color for whom the pandemic has only worsened long-festering inequities in education and employment opportunities, housing, and health care.
The American Jobs Plan is designed to address those inequities head-on. It’s tailored to deliver 40 percent of the economic, environmental, and health benefits of this strategic climate and clean energy investment to the same historically disadvantaged communities that bear a disproportionate share of the burden of environmental hazard and harm.
The American Jobs Plan is the grand strategy the country needs — and we need it now. The 2022 federal budget Biden proposed last week includes a down payment on this eight-year investment plan, with early investment to jump-start the progress it’s meant to ensure.
Now, it’s our turn to rally around this hopeful vision of a cleaner, healthier, more prosperous future for a nation united behind the climate action that can power a strong, just, and equitable recovery for every family, in every community, across this land.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul today announced it would loan $60 million to Revel to triple its EV charging infrastructure across New York City.
NY Green Bank (NYGB), the state’s clean energy investment fund and a division of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), is providing the loan to Revel, New York City’s largest provider of public DC fast-charging. It’s NYGB’s first EV charging infrastructure transaction.
The loan will allow Revel to more than triple its current New York City public fast-charging network in 2025. It will pay for the construction of 267 new charging stalls across nine sites and support the design and build of EV charging stations.
Revel will complete construction of the below 178 sites in the next 12 months, with the remainder to be completed by 2027. (Those with asterisks are in disadvantaged communities):
- 60 charging stalls in Maspeth, Queens, which will be the largest fast-charging station in the Northeast US
- 44 charging stalls near LaGuardia Airport, making it the largest fast-charging station near an airport in the US*
- 24 charging stalls at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), making it the largest charging station at the airport*
- 30 charging stalls in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
- 20 charging stalls in the Port Morris section of the Bronx*
Revel broke ground in November at JFK Airport, adjacent to the main rideshare vehicle waiting area, with support from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. With funding from NYGB, Revel will now be able to complete the construction of the 24 charging stalls. That site will open in Q1 2025 and is expected to be one of the busiest EV charging stations in the country.
NYSERDA’s president and CEO, Doreen M. Harris, said, “Increasing the state’s charging capabilities is a step forward in ensuring New Yorkers can plug in and drive clean, and we commend Revel’s leadership in this regard in a major hub and in high-impact locations such as major airports.”
Revel charging stations are open to the public on a 24/7 basis for any make and model EV. All chargers installed at future locations will have speeds of at least 320 kilowatts (kW).
Read more: Dandy Mini Marts chooses Tesla to install its first EV chargers
To limit power outages and make your home more resilient, consider going solar with a battery storage system. In order to find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and you share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate link*
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Hyundai is set to shake up the EV market with advanced new batteries soon. In March, Hyundai will reveal its all-solid-state EV battery pilot line to the public for the first time. The “Dream” batteries promise to unlock more range, faster charging, and significantly higher energy density.
Hyundai will reveal its all-solid-state EV battery pilot line
During its 2023 CEO Investor Day, Hyundai outlined plans to become a leader in the EV battery space. Hyundai announced an investment of over $9 billion (KRW 9.5 trillion) over ten years to develop a range of batteries.
Hyundai is developing lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP), Nickel Cobalt Manganese (NCM), and all-solid-state EV batteries to cover all segments.
Last month, local reports surfaced that Hyundai was almost finished constructing an all-solid-state EV battery pilot line.
On February 9, industry sources (via ET News) said Hyundai will hold an opening ceremony in March for its next-gen battery research center in Uiwang, South Korea. Hyundai built the all-solid-state EV battery pilot line inside the new research facility.
The ceremony will mark the first time Hyundai unveils its new battery technology to the public. Several industry leaders and high-ranking officials will reportedly attend, including GM, which recently expanded its EV partnership with Hyundai.
Hyundai’s all-solid-state pilot line will begin full-scale production next month. Industry sources expect Hyundai will release a prototype powered by the new EV batteries by the end of 2025.
Hyundai will use the demo line to test the new battery technology. All-solid-state batteries are often referred to as the “Dream” EV battery because they have the potential to provide more range, faster charging, higher energy density, and safety than alternatives.
However, they are not yet commercially available due to poor stability and manufacturing hurdles. To put it simply, it’s much easier said than done.
Hyundai aims to begin mass-producing all-solid-state batteries around 2030, with the first EVs powered by the new tech arriving shortly after.
Hyundai’s opening ceremony comes after Honda unveiled its first all-solid-state EV battery pilot line in November.
Electrek’s Take
Although a pilot line is still a small step, it can be huge for Hyundai. Like many automakers, Hyundai currently gets its batteries from others like CATL, SK On, and LG Energy Solution, but with plans to build them in-house, it could get a considerable advantage over rivals.
Based on its E-GMP platform, Hyundai already has some of the most efficient electric cars on the market, including the IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6.
With plans to launch its more advanced “eM” platform and in-house batteries, Hyundai has a chance to drastically cut costs, speed up output, and take a leadership role as the industry shifts to electric.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Elon Musk is about to move the goalpost on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) program in a masterful way that will allow him to claim a win.
Don’t be fooled.
I asked Grok, Musk’s “truth-seeking AI”, to list all of the CEO’s timelines for Tesla achieving self-driving and then compared them to reality:
- 2015: Predicted full autonomy by 2018.
- Reality: Not achieved; Tesla cars still required human supervision.
- 2016: Claimed full autonomy from LA to New York by 2017, all Teslas as robotaxis by 2020.
- Reality: Did not happen; FSD remained in development.
- 2018: Full self-driving capability in “3 to 6 months”.
- Reality: Missed, FSD still required human supervision.
- 2019: Early access FSD by year-end, full unsupervised driving in 2020.
- Reality: Limited beta release in 2020, but not unsupervised.
- 2020: Very close to Level 5, quantum leap in FSD.
- Reality: FSD Beta launched, but still Level 2 with human oversight.
- 2021: Full self-driving, 1 million robo-taxis by year-end.
- Reality: Neither achieved; FSD remained in beta.
- 2022: Full self-driving by end of 2022 or May 2023.
- Reality: Did not reach this milestone; FSD still not fully autonomous.
- 2023: Reiterated confidence in achieving full self-driving.
- Reality: No full autonomy achieved; continued FSD improvements but still supervised.
- 2024: Announced unsupervised FSD in Texas and California for Q2 2025.
- Reality: As of early 2025, this has not yet been launched.
- 2025: Specified launch of unsupervised FSD in Texas for June 2025.
- Reality: As of now, this has not been confirmed to have occurred; the timeline is still within the projected future, so no definitive comparison to reality can be made yet.
That’s about as embarrassing as it gets, but many Tesla supporters still don’t care because they believe that now it’s going to finally happen.
As the last point states, Tesla is still within the latest timeline of “unsupervised FSD in Texas in June 2025.”
The problem is that what Tesla is planning to launch in Austin in June has very little to do with what Musk has been promising and selling to Tesla FSD buyers since 2016.
As the latest data shows, Tesla FSD is still far from unsupervised self-driving in customer vehicles, which was promised, but it has improved significantly in the last few months. The combination of the improvement and the fact that Musk can’t take many more losses with missed FSD timelines has pushed Tesla to find a solution: Waymo.
Musk has pooh-poohed Waymo’s approach to self-driving for years. He claimed its geo-fenced, mapped, teleoperation-supported approach wouldn’t scale.
Yet, that’s almost exactly what Tesla is about to launch in Austin this year.
The CEO confirmed that Tesla’s plan is a “paid unsupervised self-driving ride-hailing service using an internal fleet of Tesla vehicles” in Austin in June.
We reported that Tesla was looking to hire people to work in teleoperation to support its self-driving vehicles shortly after announcing its plan for unsupervised ride-hailing services in Texas and California last year.
The planned teleoperation, combined with the service being limited to Austin, points to Tesla launching a geo-fenced service where it will optimize FSD performance in Austin and use teleoperation to support the vehicles.
That’s exceptionally close to Waymo’s product, which has been available in many cities for years, including in Austin more recently.
As for the long-anticipated unsupervised self-driving capability in all customer vehicles produced since 2016, it looks like Musk is too scared to share a timeline after being consistently wrong for a decade.
Electrek’s Take
I can almost guarantee what will happen: Tesla will launch this project and claim to have achieved “unsupervised self-driving.”
Elon and his Tesla influencer simps will pump this up while blurring the line between this product and FSD in customer vehicles to give the impression that Tesla is still a leader in self-driving.
When, in fact, Tesla will only have achieved what Waymo delivered years ago.
Tesla won’t be closer to delivering what it promised and sold to owners since 2016: unsupervised self-driving capable of robotaxi driving in customer vehicles.
As of the latest data, Tesla FSD v13 is achieving about 500 miles between critical disengagement while Tesla’s own stated goal to be safer than humans is to surpass miles between collision with human drivers, which is at 700,000 miles, according to NHTSA.
This program in Austin is no more than a diversion, a moving of the goalpost, to give Tesla an impression of a win in self-driving and distract owners who have bought FSD and have been promised unsupervised self-driving capability for years.
Then you had the HW3 situation into the mix, and you have quite the mess.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports10 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway