This week.

And the wheelhouse.

You.

Clean energy tax credits.

The EPA in the next four crucial years.

What will be done to cool our warming planet?

And.

For Connecticut public.

I'm Frankie Graziano.

This is the wheelhouse.

It's a show that connects politics to the people.

We got your weekly dose of politics in Connecticut and beyond right here.

Tension mounting between the states that want to accelerate climate action, to keep the planet from warming.

And an incoming president administration with a drill baby drill mentality when it comes to energy.

Legislators across the state are preparing for cuts in funding for climate initiatives.

And somebody's going to help me break this down.

Somebody very special.

A good friend of mine.

State government reporter for Connecticut public.

Michela Savan.

Hi, Frankie.

So happy to see you.

It's good to be back.

Thank you for having me.

And so happy now to understand why your beautiful dog, Alfie's name is Alfie.

Because I finally saw it.

I was in a theater kid like you were.

But now I know why Alfie exists.

Yes, yes.

Is she.

She's defying gravity.

Yeah.

Don't make me sing, folks.

You want to join the conversation?

You want to get in on this?

You want to talk to Michaela, and I call 88872096778872096771.

Also welcome our friends.

Joining us on YouTube youtube.com slash Connecticut Public.

We are live there.

We are live on CT public.

We're live on the radio as well.

Michaela, I want to ask you, Trump administration not exactly known for prioritizing environmentally fine, friendly policies during the last term, they, pulled out of the climate of the Paris climate agreement.

You've spoken with climate activists and advocates as well.

What are their concerns right now?

Yeah.

Well, first of all, there's a lot of uncertainty about, what's going to be coming down the pike from the federal administration.

You know, come January 20th.

And, in talking with a lot of climate Act advocates and folks that want to see, you know, the, you know, the country and the state turn, towards more renewables going forward.

You know, there's a lot of, hope that Connecticut can attack this on a state level.

And, you know, that many states can attack this on a state level because, its net climate change continues, to, you know, affect the country again and again this year.

Well, I think we were joking about this earlier because, we all I think everybody that came into Connecticut public today because it's raining in Connecticut, all had Roe Drive.

Yes.

It was in the studio.

Yeah.

It was a white knuckle, drive up 91.

And I was saying to you that, you know, it's it's something like 50 degrees out right now, but, I don't know.

The exact.

But my day when I was a kid, this would have been a snowstorm.

You would have been a snow day.

So, you know, it's just one example of, you know, what's happening as a result of climate change.

But, you know, to go back to your question, there's there's a lot of concerns about, climate policy rollbacks and slowdowns on a federal level.

You know, like you said, Trump campaign promises to increase, pushing, you know, pushing for more fossil fuel production.

He's voiced a dislike for renewable energy, especially offshore wind.

And so a lot of folks, not just in Connecticut are worried about losing ground on, you know, reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

And Connecticut is already not meeting its climate goals.

And, you know, just to reiterate, there's a huge amount of evidence, tying, climate change to human activities like burning fossil fuels, which emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the biggest contributor to our Earth's, atmospheric warming, since, you know, in the last 100 plus years.

So, you know, and we've seen more and more extreme weather events, especially since the 21st century began.

And 2024 is on track to be the hottest year on record.

And we've seen more billion dollar disasters this year than ever before.

So when we see the events like the flood that happened in Oxford earlier this year, we had a tropical storm a few years ago, essentially a hurricane, through Rhode Island and southeastern Connecticut a few years back.

Am I to understand this flooding, brushfires, things like that?

I do understand that this is tied to climate change.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think, you know, we'll see that with, you know, the hurricane that devastated, you know, the southern, the, you know, the rocky what what a, hurricane Helene.

Yes.

The the rains getting there.

There's so many names and things like that.

Ali can't keep up with him with all his of arms.

You know, we're seeing it that a warmer oceans are directly leading to, you know, worse hurricanes.

And, you know, there's a huge amount of evidence that we can point to with, you know, the warmer atmosphere causing these bigger rainfall events that are causing rainfall to, you know, happen faster and, you know, dump more rain, like what happened in August.

And, you know, also just to mention that, you know, impacts of climate change in Connecticut, disproportionate and across the country disproportionately affects, you know, people who are low income communities of color, you know, big historical, you know, precedent for for that.

And, you know, in terms of housing and just where folks have been displaced, but also, we can't forget extreme heat over the summer, poor air quality just already that exists, but is exacerbated by extreme heat.

And lots of research out there on impacts on physical health, mental health.

We've seen changes in sea level.

Winters are getting warmer.

I could go on and on.

It's there, and I'm sure it makes you anxious, as it does with many other people.

But you know, I it makes me anxious.

But I think a lot of people are anxious about it, and a lot of people are concerned about.

Absolutely.

And where I want to go with this is that you've covered, not just as a state House reporter, but also in following some breaking news related to the environment, some of these weather events that we've had and not so long ago when we had floods within a matter of weeks, the US Drought Monitor reported that a quarter of Connecticut was in severe draw drought.

These intense influxes in weather seem concerted, at least as changes.

Sorry, have you heard from any state officials regarding Connecticut's ability to respond to these extreme weather events?

Yeah, with with the wildfires, you know, Commissioner Katie Dikes said when when they lifted the month plus long burn ban in Connecticut that, you know, the state was able to get help from outside sources, but it really showed the need to prepare for even more frequent and severe weather, you know, not just short term strategy, but, you know, long term infrastructure investments and emergency planning.

And we saw that, you know, with the flooding in late August as well.

It's almost tax time, I guess.

Yeah, in a few months here.

Can you tell us about the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration and what it did for, Connecticut residents?

Yeah.

There, there were over $370 million earmarked for Connecticut projects, you know, geared towards clean, clean energy efficiency and reliable energy, you know, projects spanning water and air and waste management, down the line, expanding broadband internet access.

You know, when the bright spots when we're talking about, you know, the fight against climate change is that technology is always, you know, getting better and better and being made available.

But a lot of these projects are not off the ground, or not a lot.

You know, many of the projects are not off the ground.

As you can imagine.

It takes a while to roll out, coming from, you know, federal money and, you know, going through the ranks and, you know, handing out grants and, you know, allowing people to apply for them.

So there's a process.

These the same climate advocates that you've talked to that were concerned about the Trump presidency, or at least his track record that he's had on on handling the environment.

What are they telling you about how the presidency may impact the Inflation Reduction Act specifically?

I think there's some concern about the the unspent federal dollars, that's supporting projects in Connecticut, and beyond.

But, you know, I should mention that a lot of states are very supportive of the Inflation Reduction Act, you know, you know, especially, even Republican led states because it's creating a lot of jobs and it's helping the economy.

So, you know, folks in Connecticut, you know, they want to see, like I said before, they want to see renewable energy projects expanded.

You know, in talking with the climate and energy attorney at Save the Sound, Charles Rothenberg, or, you know, he said, you know, he wouldn't expect the Trump administration to necessarily, expand renewable energy.

But, he also didn't, in his opinion, didn't think that there would be like a wholesale repeal of it because there's such broad support for what it's done for the economy and other folks, you know, have echoed similar things.

As a result of what's happening nationally.

Now, with the new administration coming in, we're seeing the crunch for new legislation in some states.

I'm sure that's happening in Connecticut as well as the session's about to begin.

But before we get there, obviously, I would imagine they would have wanted to get some initiatives done in the last few years to tail off that kind of thing.

Administration to administration change.

So is there anything that happened last year?

Is there anything that's happened in recent years that, officials in Connecticut can kind of point to to say that they're they're having an eye out to the environment?

Yeah.

I know a lot of talking about climate change is very, doom and gloom and, exactly, but important.

But but super important.

And that's why we talk about.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, there are, you know, solutions that have been put forth on a policy level.

You know, earlier this fall was talking with deep about, you know, their climate resilience fund and the state legislature authorized a climate resiliency revolving loan fund, which would make low interest loans available to municipalities to use on things like infrastructure repairs and resiliency projects.

There was a bit of, expansion on solar in the last session.

But, you know, last session was a short session, so it was hard to get a lot done.

And this coming session will span two months longer, and we'll be making a new budget.

So big.

Session.

Yeah.

Big session.

Last year, you and I talked about the last session.

You and I talked about how, you know, the House approved, omnibus bill didn't pass.

It didn't pass both chambers.

The Senate didn't call it for a vote.

So I think that's something that, you know, I imagine lawmakers will be trying to propose again.

I'm not sure of any specifics, but, you know, it's geared towards, reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state and setting some new standards.

So I imagine that'll be coming down the pike.

But again, a lot of unknowns right now.

A lot of work in a budget year or two, because now this is all going to come to a head.

Yeah.

But I think that, you know, in talking about solutions, I think that, you know, there was a bit of money put aside for climate resiliency, like I said.

And I think that's something that a lot of folks are eyeing as well, because climate resiliency is something that, you know, takes all of us and, you know, everybody is needed to take part in solutions big and small, hyperlocal and state and municipal level, to tackle.

This and tide to time to so that, we can tackle it and make it not so doom and gloomy as well as we're understanding with the UN talking about a 2030 as a marker to try to turn back, the 1.5°C temperature change that we're seeing here.

We're going to talk more about that later.

I got one last question for Michaela before she leaves here.

We got the session coming up.

I want you to kind of give us a primer of what we could expect on the environment.

But also, you had the the governor come out already and say that it's probably not going to happen with phasing out sales of new cars that are fossil fuels, gas powered vehicles.

Right.

Probably not going to happen.

Legislation this year kind of tempered that.

I don't know if that's impacting the way that somebody that cares about the environment might look at the session.

Are there other things that can get done this year?

Yeah.

Backing up, I think that the discussion about EVs comes back to the cost of utilities and, the challenges that Connecticut and frankly, and a parts of New England, you know, are having with the electrical grid, which I'm sure you know, your next guest can talk about a little bit more.

But, you know, we're talking with the chairs of the Energy and Technology Committee.

You know, just in the last day, you know, they were talking about how, you know, Connecticut's energy future will be a big focus.

But they, you know, the state needs a lot more energy to meet demand.

Now.

They hope they'll be a broad conversation committee to make the grid more reliable.

And resilient.

That's a long, kind of thing to lay out, but you have to lay groundwork on that kind of thing.

But they also know that the cost of utilities that, you know, went up for a lot of customers this year is also a really huge concern for residents in Connecticut.

And you know, that, you know, they're open to ideal ideas.

And again, we're just have to wait and see.

Excellent interview that we just had.

Mikayla, really expansive.

So expansive, in fact, that we're probably going to have to move on from Connecticut and connect it to the national level and spoke scope, because this was a great interview.

I'm Frankie Graziano, this is the wheelhouse.

You've been listening to my colleague Mikayla Savage, state government reporter for Connecticut Public.

Thank you so much for coming on this morning.

Thank you for braving the elements.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Yes.

Coming up, what climate initiative rollbacks can we expect in the new year?

And will the Trump administration face obstacles if they try to undo things like the Inflation Reduction Act?

If you have a question for our experts, join the conversation.

88872096778887209677.

2000.

Local journalism strengthens communities thanks to listeners who support us voluntarily.

Connecticut Public is here to fulfill a mission that's important to our community and our democracy.

Please join that mission by becoming a supporter today.

We can't continue this important work without your help.

Support for arts and culture.

Reporting on Connecticut Public Radio comes from Blackwood Mansions, gardens and arboretum.

Listen for reports on Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Being a puppeteer is sort of like being a superhero.

It is an.

Art form.

That is older.

Than language.

You believe we're here?

And can you believe this friend group started because of a purple dinosaur generation?

Barney.

A podcast about the media.

We loved his kids and how it shapes us.

Listen to episode five Purple Dino Puppeteers wherever you get your podcasts.

Listening to Connecticut Public Radio always makes me feel good because I know the information is accurate, keeps me informed, I get different perspectives and I always learn something.

My name is Suzanne Hopgood.

I'm happy and proud to support Connecticut Public, and I'd like you to join me.

We can all make a difference to our fellow citizens.

Please donate today and keep this incredible community resource thriving.

To contribute.

Go to CT Public Mortgage.

Donate.

This is the wheelhouse from Connecticut Public.

I am Connecticut Public's Frankie Graziano and I am all over the place this morning.

President elect Donald Trump has pledged to roll back climate initiatives and ramp up oil production.

But will he face pushback from his supporters, many of whom benefit from the funding currently being poured into clean energy technology?

Joining me now, Shannon Osaka, Climate Zeit Zeitgeisty, reporter for The Washington Post.

Shannon, you have the coolest job title and really the coolest beat.

So we love to have you on the show.

Thanks so much for having me.

And you have a great, and you're a great writer, too.

So it's great to talk to you about your work.

Also with us, Miriam Wasser, senior reporter for Wbur's Climate and Environment team.

Miriam, welcome to the wheelhouse.

Good to talk to you.

Hey, thanks so much for having me.

Yeah, it's been a long time.

No talk.

So it's good to see you here on the show.

Folks, you want to talk to us, give us a call at 8872096778887209677.

Thank you for joining us on YouTube today.

And on the radio and on online.

Michela Shannon, this question goes to you.

Michela just talked to us about the Paris climate agreement.

The rallying cry keep 1.5 alive.

What's that mean?

And is that a goal?

Is that something that we failed to to do to keep 1.5 alive?

Yeah.

Yeah, I.

So the Paris climate agreement, was agreed to in 2015, ratified in 2016, and it had a kind of a two part goal.

The first part of the goal was to keep temperatures well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.

And the second goal was to pursue efforts to hold temperatures to 1.5°C.

So a lot of kind of a little bit, wiggly language, in international law and what we have seen so far is that we are pretty far from the goal of keeping 1.5015.

As activists say, many scientists believe that we will pass 1.5 degrees.

Sometime in the early 2030s, and that that opportunity has basically passed.

And now most of our focus should be on preventing a rise over two degrees Celsius.

However, you know, nobody really wants to admit this yet.

Scientists will say it, but global policymakers won't really.

And is there a reason for that?

Is it is what we're seeing here in America with a change in administration?

Somebody that might not necessarily have the track record that, another administration might say in Europe or something like that.

Is that why you want to try to stay positive on this, even though we've maybe blown past it?

Yeah.

I think that just no one wants to be the first person to say, hey, we're not doing this because then you're seen as you're not seen as an ally of like, low lying island states, which are basically facing totally existential risk of sea level rise.

Everyone kind of wants to keep that goal.

And I think that's a that's a noble effort.

But what we've seen, I mean, since the Paris Agreement was signed, global emissions have increased by 2 billion metric tons.

So we are not headed in the right direction.

And with a Trump White House potentially pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement, things are going to look even more dire.

It sounds like we're derailing here.

So let's be clear about what's at stake, then.

What are the implication of us blowing past that 1.5 goal?

Yeah, it's extremely serious.

I mean, we don't scientists don't know.

There are certain tipping at what we call tipping points in the climate system where we hit a certain temperature and then a process will start that really can't be stopped.

They don't know exactly where those are, but they think some of them are around 1.5°C.

So we're talking about the collapse of the Greenland ice sheet.

We're talking about the collapse of the Antarctic ice sheet.

We're talking about, you know, the death of coral reefs worldwide.

And so once you hit those temperatures, it's really hard to sort of restore those systems.

And that means basically locking in a lot of sea level rise.

It means locking in certain environmental damages.

Now climate scientists would say that doesn't mean that we're losing hope.

It doesn't mean like every 10th of a degree matters is a thing that we hear a lot from scientists.

So just because we've passed 1.5 degrees, if we can still hold to 1.6, that's better than 1.7 and so on.

But basically every 10th of a degree, we're going to see more extreme weather events.

We're going to see more potentially irreversible consequences.

That's rather drastic.

That's it's very important to underscore as well.

And Miriam, I think you were going to jump in.

Go ahead.

Oh, I can't no I wasn't planning on it, but yeah, I mean, we've seen a lot of extreme weather here in New England in the last couple of years.

And the implications are, are big for us for as Michaela outlined in the first segment.

Right, we are more likely to see more sort of like whiplash between drought and extreme flooding.

Sea level rise, like the stakes are really high here.

What does the second Trump term then mean for the goals laid out?

In the treaty that we were discussing earlier, we've heard how Connecticut legislators are reacting to a second, Trump term.

How our legislators in Massachus Yeah, I think here in Massachusetts, leaders at the state level and actually at the local level really see themselves as like sort of the resistance, again, kind of like resistance 2.0 and, you know, have doubled down on their commitment to Massachusetts climate goals and to helping lead the country and, and show the way forward, whether it's with renewable energy targets or certain climate adaptation targets.

So Massachusetts recently passed a really big climate bill that should make it a lot easier to make some of these things happen.

So, you know, the message that we're hearing from the governor and lawmakers and city officials like Boston city officials, as we are still all in on trying to make our climate goals happen.

WBur, the New England News Collaborative, as well, have been following climate change.

Miriam has been following it, ever since I started working here at Connecticut Public for so long, probably telling you exactly what was going to happen as it's happened here in real time.

So please do follow WBur, WBur dawg, and the New England News collaborative@nick.org as well.

Hey Shannon, there may be some obstacles in the way if Trump wishes to undo some of the climate initiatives put into place in the last few years.

For one thing, it sounds like cleaner forms of energy have become cheaper than coal or gas fired power plants.

Is that correct?

Yes, that is correct in a lot of areas.

We've gotten to a point where basically the the cost of setting up a solar farm or a wind farm is less than setting up a new coal plant, a new natural gas plant.

Solar and battery costs have fallen by about 90% in the last decade.

Wind has fallen by about 70%.

I mean, these are really huge changes in terms of cost.

And those can't Trump can't, you know, step into office and say, oh, I'm going to make wind and solar more expensive.

You can do some tariff stuff, but it's not going to change the over the, underlying global picture.

And we expect that there will be pushback.

I mean, right now the Inflation Reduction Act is funneling hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy investments into the country.

And when we're talking about things that are like manufacturing plants or wind and solar farms, those are mostly going to be Republican led congressional districts.

About three quarters of the funding so far has gone to those Republican areas.

So if Trump is pushing to try to repeal some of those credits and benefits, he will likely see pushback from some members of his own party.

Miriam, we got a caller here I want you to listen to.

This is Robert from Woodbury.

Go ahead.

Robert, I want to hear what you got to say.

Welcome to the wheelhouse this morning.

Oh, thank you for having me.

Yes.

I first want to just commend Massachusetts.

And New York has done.

They've moved forward and pushed the ball forward.

And my concern is, is Connecticut going to play catch up?

So they both have building performance standards.

There's building labeling.

There's stretch codes in Massachusetts and then having community solar for all.

And the Connecticut legislature, although overwhelmingly Democrat and Democrat governor, has lagged behind.

So I think the speakers are correct.

Washington is going to walk away.

It's going to be up to, for us in Connecticut for the legislature to step up and local municipalities step up, and they need to give us a tool to do so.

I think it's unclear exactly what's going to happen in Connecticut.

Just for a short answer there, Robert.

But, Miriam, I think what we can talk about here is if New England region states will step up, as Robert was sort of alluding to with Massachusetts, New England been a leader in offshore wind energy.

Will states be able to support the growth of that industry without federal assistance?

Yeah, well, we can come back to offshore wind in one second.

Just want to address something that Robert said.

So I think I think one of the things that Massachusetts is really thinking about when, you know, passing gas, new stretch codes are building performance standards.

So these are things that will help, reduced planet warming emissions from buildings to make them more environmentally friendly.

What I've heard from state leaders here is that what they're really trying to do is show the way forward, so to say, look, we can do this in a way that creates jobs, that reduces energy bills for people, and that is beneficial to our economy.

And the the goal is, you know, look, we can do it.

If we can do it here in Massachusetts, then maybe people in Connecticut would say, oh, hey, we could do that too.

So that's the message I'm hearing from state leaders here.

Thank you so much to Robert for the.

Oh, yes.

That's right.

Do you want to go back to offshore wind?

Go ahead.

Oh, I could talk about offshore wind all day, right?

Yeah.

So we're going to break.

In my.

40s.

So yeah.

We.

Know you on weekend.

Yeah.

Yeah okay.

Yeah I mean I think offshore wind is a great example of something where New England is, is leading and wants to show the way and is committed because as we can talk about in more detail after the break, we we don't really have another option for getting the amount of energy that we're going to need in the future.

And I understand Connecticut is going to be involved in some negotiations on that shortly.

Stay tuned, throughout the winter for more, on that, we will talk more about offshore wind in a moment from Connecticut Public Radio.

This is the wheelhouse.

I'm Frank Graziano.

Shannon Osaka is on your screen, climate zeitgeist reporter for The Washington Post.

And Miriam Wasser, senior reporter for Wbur's climate environment team.

Coming up, have you benefited from tax credits for electric vehicles or heat pumps?

Are you worried about those credits coming to an end?

We'll walk through what you can do now to save money while you can.

Remember, you can join the conversation at 88872096778887209677, and Connecticut Public is smack dab in the middle of its December pledge drive.

If you found this episode of The Wheelhouse enlightening, we're asking you to be the fuel that keeps us going.

Your donations keep the lights on and the mics on and on.

Every gift made during this hour.

It means the world to us.

And it means the world to me.

Big radio hug out to our listeners.

You provide 90% of our funding.

Can we count on your support as we roll into 2025?

Visit CT public.org to support the show with your gift.

Here's two of my colleagues to tell you more.

Good morning.

I'm Eric Olson here with Jim Hardin.

It is 935 in the morning.

Thank you so much for listening to Connecticut Public Radio.

And now is a great time to support Connecticut Public with the winter membership campaign underway.

We're about halfway through the week, which means we're halfway through the drive and we're looking to you right now.

Yes, you, the listeners, to support us right now.

And here's how you do it.

CT public gorg CT public Dawgs donate.

To be specific, there's a red button at the top of the website.

Click it and it's easy, safe, simple, secure way to donate.

You can also call (800)584-2788.

Good morning Jim.

Good morning Eric.

It's great to see you.

And as Eric mentioned this is our December pledge drive.

It's our last drive of the year.

If you haven't donated already, please do consider it.

Don't put it off any longer.

Your donation is an investment in the news and the shows that you rely on.

Shows like The wheelhouse you're listening to today, shows like Where We Live and Disrupted that fill out our weekday morning, our audacious, with Keenan Wolfe, the great Colin McEnroe.

These are programs and names that you have have, come to be familiar with and in many cases have a real relationship with when you're listening on the radio.

And we ask you just to, donate to support that work today.

And as Eric mentioned, the best way you can do that is CT public.org.

Take a look for the donate button.

Saves us a little bit of money on the transaction fees when you donate online.

If you prefer, you can call us on the phone at one 805 842788.

And Eric, I think we have some gifts for folks who pledge today as well.

We do.

We do have this really great, tote bag.

I know a lot of you have a lot of tote bags out there already in your collection, but guess what?

This is new.

It is very artistic.

It's like a watercolor is is, how I would describe it, a bunch of microphones, like at a, at a podium, for example, that you'd see at a press conference.

There was some buzz when this design was on internal buzz.

It's got us talking in internally.

And you're going to love, you know, showing your pride for Connecticut public.

And this is for $8 a month as sustaining member.

So consider that as your thank you gift.

It's, wheelhouse Wednesday, which is, you know, a great day, of course, but it's also a great day because we have a dollar for dollar match going on right now.

This morning's dollar for dollar match, sponsored by people's Bank, which provides real simple banking.

So that means all donations this morning, including your donation, is going to be doubled.

So this is a great time.

If you're looking to time your contribution, now is a great time.

You'll get your donation doubled.

And if you donated $8 a month, you'll get this great Connecticut Public tote bag with this great watercolor feature on it.

It's really cool and unique.

Here's how you contribute CT public.org again CT public morgue or call (800)584-2788.

And thank you so much for your support.

1833.

The letter c u y o u.

Now our visit Trinity health of any.org/pcp.

So Rob Amari is proudly conservative.

He's written for the Catholic Herald, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal.

Sounds like he'd.

Be a champion of unfettered capitalism, right?

Wrong.

Capitalism is actually a profoundly, Conservative.

Voice.

It's, you know, tremendously creative, but also tremendously destructive.

So Rob.

Amari joins us on the next.

On point.

Listen, this morning at ten.

The number of Americans dying of drug overdoses is dropping.

And it's dropping fast.

As of mid 2023, the running 12 month death count was about 111,000.

And now that number has dropped into the mid or even low 90,000 range.

On the next.

Today explained, we ask if the U.S. is finally winning the war on opioids.

This afternoon at 330.

Support comes from Mystic Aquarium.

Don't miss the home for the Holidays Lights Extravaganza select nights through December 31st.

This year's event includes Santa's brightly decorated indoor and outdoor habitats and special entertainment.

Mystic aquarium.org.

This is the wheelhouse from Connecticut Public Radio.

I'm Frankie Graziano, scientist.

Set point to 2030 as a major marker for the world.

United Nations reports that to keep global warming to no more than 1.5°C, emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030.

So what's being done on a state level to hit these targets?

And what can we expect from the incoming administration into the white House?

I'm joined this morning by Miriam Wasser, senior reporter for Wbur's climate and environment team, and Shannon Osaka, climate case reporter for The Washington Post.

If you have a question for our guests, you can join the conversation.

88872096778887209677.

Thank you for joining us on the radio, on the web, youtube.com slash Connecticut public this morning.

Hey, Shannon.

The Biden administration has touted the inflation reduction Act as a way to move us toward a safer climate and save Americans money at the same time.

Can you talk about the money saving aspect of the act since 2022?

Has it actually resulted in money in people's pockets?

Yeah, absolutely.

So there's kind of two segments of tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act.

One is for businesses that are building wind, solar or manufacturing plants, etc., and the other is for consumers.

So people can get money back for installing solar panels on their roofs, for buying electric vehicles, installing heat pumps.

And the IRS has not released all of the data about how many people have used these programs, but it's over 3 million so far.

It's probably a significantly more than that.

And so people have been, you know, getting $7,500 off the purchase of a new electric vehicle, getting 30% of the cost of installing rooftop solar back, from the government.

And those are the programs that most experts say are really under threat as we move into the new Trump administration.

Trump has not been a fan of consumer tax credits.

He has particularly, made some comments about the energy tax credit and been critical of it.

So these may not last through another calendar year.

McKayla touched on this earlier, but our members of both major political parties, Democrats and Republicans, benefiting from the Inflation Reduction Act.

They definitely are.

It's a little bit interesting because when you're talking about the manufacturing and the wind and solar, that's mostly happening in Republican areas, when you're talking about things like electric vehicles, that's more happening in Democratic urban areas.

Rooftop solar, I think, is a little bit sort of crosscutting across both Democrats and Republicans.

But so when you look at something like the EV tax credit, it just more people in urban areas are buying EVs.

And so they are benefiting from this tax credit, which is another reason why the Trump administration might say, you know, this is a tax credit that we don't necessarily need.

It's going more to my, political, opponents than it is to my allies.

What are some of the ways, Miriam, that New Englanders pocketbooks are benefiting from the Inflation Reduction Act?

You and I, I guess.

Yeah.

So I looked up these numbers this morning in anticipation of this question.

So among the six New England states, given that the IRS data that we have, it looks like over 200,000 people or 200,000 households have applied and gotten a tax credit?

And those either are for, you know, things like solar panels or weatherizing their home.

So better insulation.

And in total, people have gotten in terms of like a dollar amount for tax credits, close to $540,000 here in New England.

And that's across all six states.

So people really are taking advantage of this.

And, I can't speak specifically to Connecticut, but I know here in Massachusetts we have a number of incentives that stack on top of those federal incentives to try to make things even more appealing, whether that's solar panels or EVs or home battery systems.

So people here in New England are taking advantage of it.

You know, one storyline we hear a lot of is the sort of main heat pump explosion and the success of getting heat pumps across Maine.

I know a number of states are re You know, we we here in New England, we heat our homes mostly with, with, with fossil fuels.

So whether that's natural gas or deliverables like oil and, propane and those things are contributing to climate change and central to, all six states goals is really are five states goals at least are switching over to electric sources of heating.

I got a different, question for you, Shannon, but I just want to underscore that.

Right.

So that $540,000 figure that Miriam just gave us, I think you said it was 3 million total in the United States that we're giving out in tax credits for the IRS.

So that would be three.

Sorry, 3 million peop, 3 million households, 3 million households.

So that's 200,000 households, though, compared to three, 3 million.

That's pretty big, right?

That's considerable here in New England.

Yeah.

I mean, I, I don't, Shannon might know better than I would if they're expecting more people to take advantage of it in this and that 2024 calendar year is as awareness of it has increased.

But yeah, I mean, it's where it's happening.

People are using.

It.

And, I'm looking forward to more reporting on the main heat pump explosion and bonanza.

That sounds fun.

Shout out to our friends in, in, in Portland.

We know the Trump administration could repeal things like tax credits for electric vehicles, heat pumps.

Do you have any advice for people, Shannon, who are saving money under the Inflation Reduction Act right now?

I guess any steps they could take before this office, could repeal, those things mainly, maybe EV tax credits.

Yeah.

So, I mean, if you've already purchased an EV or heat pump or solar panels, you're you're pretty much in the clear.

But if it's something that you are planning, if you're thinking of buying an EV, in the next year or so, my advice would be do it soon and do it as soon as you can, because there's a lot of the EV tax credit is a little bit complicated.

It depends on like the origins of the batteries and things like this.

And so even if it might take an act of Congress to repeal it fully, the Trump administration could easily come in and say, hey, we're introducing new guidance.

And this means that basically no EVs are, eligible for these tax credits.

So if you're looking to buy an EV, do it now.

Do it soon.

If you want that $7,500 benefit.

Yeah.

Shannon's telling you you got to go now.

Go after the show is complete, though.

But nonetheless, we do have a caller, Tom, from Manchester.

I haven't heard from you in a while.

Tom.

What's happening?

What do you got?

Yeah.

Are you doing.

Yes.

Concerns I have with, the climate changes, under the Trump administration.

What will you do with, executive orders?

We try to go after the, whether it's, channel FEMA, the fund that and what's going on in Colorado, the, you know, the water sharing system.

And it's like there's maybe possible, funding cuts there, too.

And, like I said, with, the East Coast erosion of, the coastline through, salt water, when I was watching the PBS NewsHour in Virginia or Fox farmland in the, Naval Academy two, they had to put in some kind of a marshes.

So it's, it's it's bad in bio bioterrorism, too.

If it gets into nefarious, you know, hands.

What they, what saboteurs, you know, can do when that, that the rest of the world may be underwater in ten years where Fiji is.

And that's all salt water.

So I guess it comes down to, a commitment of, standing up to the Trump administration and hopefully gets, some people with some open minds and not closed minds.

And that, last was environmental racism, poor families that live near these plants, two that are sucking in emissions with the children and led to that exposure.

So, yeah.

Thank you for calling in today, Tom.

Highlighting a very important fact.

Thank you for bringing up environmental racism, too.

But, hey, if I'm in an echo chamber where I'm paying attention to rhetoric, I only listen to Donald Trump.

And, and I've heard that climate change is a hoax.

What do I care about?

No, what do I care about the Weather Channel?

What do I care about FEMA?

Help me understand why it's important to have these things and why.

I guess funding shouldn't be cut.

Channeled.

You could take that one.

Sorry.

No worries.

Any reaction time?

Just said Tom's a good friend of ours from Manchester.

No, absolutely.

I mean, I think that we are expecting Trump to really try to take kind of a hatchet to the Environmental Protection Agency, to a lot of these, agency cities that are looking at clean air, clean water.

Right now, EPA has 17,000 employees.

They are looking to try to find cuts wherever they can.

And that will mean decreased monitoring of fossil fuel companies that are pumping out oil, that are creating air pollution.

We saw this in the first Trump term.

We're expecting, Trump to come in and, start to roll back a lot of environmental regulations.

Again, we saw that in the first term, they had less success than they would have liked to because, of just the way that they tried to roll those back.

But we may see a second Trump term be a little bit more sophisticated and a little bit more knowledgeable about how the agency works and how they can most effectively roll back, rules on clean water, rules on clean air and things like that.

So this is a really, you know, for people who work in climate, in the environment, in the government.

This is a really serious moment.

I have been doing a piece on, looking at sea level rise in the US southeast, which is experiencing extremely rapid sea level rise.

I've been talking to all of these scientists at NOAA.

Their work is extremely important, and I think there's just a lot of stress about, you know, who is going to take over these important jobs.

Are these career government employees going to stay there?

Yeah, I think we'll have to see.

But I would expect to see a lot of a repeat of the first Trump term in terms of a lot of chaos coming out of these environmental agencies and a lot of rollbacks.

We know the effects, Miriam, of climate change are not felt equally.

And that's why I was glad that Tom called when he did.

Over the past four years, the Biden administration has prioritized environmental justice.

Are those initiatives making a mark?

And what happens if environmental justice is not prioritized in the years to come?

Yeah.

I if I can just add one thing to what Shannon said first to if that's okay, I think, you know, not to it is alarming and it is very kind of a scary prospect to think about all of these environmental regulations being gutted and these agencies.

Right.

Getting the hatchet as she said.

But this is one area where states matter to and a lot of New England states have really strong local environmental regulations and laws.

So, you know, I, I don't want anyone to like, get too, too scared here.

But, you know, there are local air, regulations, local water quality regulations, things that, you, you have some protections in, in most New England states, I should say, but to bring it back to your question about environmental justice, yes.

The Biden administration made a huge, huge push to, for environmental justice.

They instituted, a framework called the justice 40 initiative, which was that 40% of all benefits would go to environmental justice communities, whether that's like through grants are various programs.

I believe that is widely expected to be dissolved pretty early on in the administration.

And as Michaela noted, up top right, we know that people in, in certain communities, lower income communities, people of color, people in rural communities often tend to bear a disproportionate brunt of the effects of climate change and of pollution.

And I think we can expect that those problems will only get worse if a lot of things at the federal level are gutted.

Shannon, even though it sounds like we're barreling down a dangerous passive path if we don't take action, we've really highlighted that for the last hour.

Important too, though the funds the U.S. and other countries have poured into cleaner solutions have made a difference in some way, right?

Yeah.

I mean, we've seen, us emissions starting to drop.

We've seen European emissions starting to go down, as well as they've made huge investments in renewables.

You know, with the the war in Ukraine, there was this whole, stress about where sources for natural gas were going to come from.

And those were also that also spurred additional renewable battery investments.

So I think that we've seen the tide starting to turn.

We see all kind of like the cost and everything pointing towards renewables.

And so that transition is underway and I don't think that it really can be stopped.

The question really is at this point, how fast is it going to happen and how will the next four years affect that speed, and what will that mean ultimately for our climate goals.

That Shannon Osaka, climate site guys, reporter for The Washington Post, thank you for joining us today.

Shannon.

Thanks for having me.

Miriam Wasser.

So good talking you today, senior reporter for Wbur's Climate Environment team.

Thanks for having me, Frankie.

Thank you for doing the work today.

We appreciate it.

Thank you guys for coming on the show.

It was produced by Chloe Winn, a great show edited by Robin Deutsch and Aiken.

Our technical producer is the maestro Dylan Reyes.

Download The Wheelhouse anytime on your favorite podcast app.

I'm Frankie Graziano.

This is the wheelhouse.

Thank you for listening.

To.