Reuters
Biden administration spending climate cash fast, as Trump threatens to cancel it
September 18, 202410:26 PM GMT+6Updated 5 hours ago
Item 1 of 2 The sun sets over the cityscape during a period of high weather temperatures in Los Angeles, California, U.S. September 5, 2024. REUTERS/Etienne Laurent/File Photo
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WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump has said he would cancel all unspent funds from President Joe Biden’s signature climate law if he wins the presidential election on Nov. 5.
But the vast majority of grants will be spent by the time a new president takes office in January, and targeting what remains would be a massive legal challenge, according to Biden administration officials.
The Biden administration has awarded $90 billion in grants to climate, clean energy, and other projects so far under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which amounts to 70% of the law’s roughly $120 billion in total climate-focused grant money and over 80% of what the law made available before 2025, according to administration officials.
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Another $15 billion could be awarded in the coming months.
The administration is doling out the funds “as quickly and as equitably as we can,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Natalie Quillian told Reuters.
She added that the unspent funds – as well as the billions of dollars worth of tax credits available annually under the law for things like electric vehicles, solar plants, and wind farms – would be tough to freeze if Trump regained office.
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“No president is above the law, and the law is pretty clear here: The executive branch does not have the authority to withhold appropriated funds just because it might disagree with the policies that Congress enacted,” Quillian said.
The Inflation Reduction Act is billed as the largest U.S. climate law in history, valued at over $400 billion total. That figure includes grants and other spending to spur clean energy deployment, along with tax incentives and credits.
Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, said in an economy-focused speech on Sept. 5 that he wants to “rescind all unspent funds under the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act” if elected.
The Republican former president is running against Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat who cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to pass the bill.
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said on Tuesday that if his party wins control of Congress on Election Day, they will target the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, in the first 100 days.
Whether that is likely depends on the makeup of the next Congress after the election.
U.S. House Republicans have attempted to repeal part or all of the law 42 times, but have failed to get enough votes.
Last month, 18 House Republicans sent a letter to Johnson urging him not to target the law because of the investments that IRA subsidies have drawn to their districts.
Biden administration agencies with the most climate-related IRA funding told Reuters they are moving fast with their grants.
The Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, for example, said they already had obligated all, or nearly all, of their IRA-related funding.
The Interior Department, meanwhile, said it had awarded or made available nearly $4.9 billion of its $6.4 billion in total Inflation Reduction Act funding.
The Treasury Department, meanwhile, said it has completed the rules for using major IRA tax credits for 22 of 24 available programs and plans to finish the rest this year.
Trump would have a hard time repurposing that money thanks to protections in the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, according to Gillian Metzger, a Columbia University law professor. That law was passed after President Richard Nixon impounded funds for federal spending he opposed on policy grounds.
“These measures really constrain the authority of presidents to do this,” she said.
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Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; editing by Jonathan Oatis
November 5, 20249:16 AM GMT+6Updated 4 hours ago
Item 1 of 2 Oct 20, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Joe Rogan talks to fans in the paddock at the Formula 1 Pirelli United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Mandatory Credit: Aaron E. Martinez-Imagn Images/File Photo
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WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Popular podcaster Joe Rogan, who recently interviewed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for nearly three hours, said on Monday he has endorsed the former president in the race to the White House.
Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 U.S. election in what polls show to be a tight race. Harris has got multiple celebrity endorsements.
“For the record, yes, that’s an endorsement of Trump,” Rogan said on X while posting a clip of his interview with billionaire Elon Musk, who has also endorsed Trump. Rogan said in his post that Musk made the “most compelling case for Trump.”
Trump’s recent interview with Rogan lasted about 3 hours and was released on YouTube and Spotify in late October. The two discussed a range of topics and the interview got over 45 million views on YouTube.
The former president criticized Rogan in August on Truth Social, his social media platform, after the podcaster praised then-independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. Kennedy has since pulled out of the race and endorsed Trump. Trump later called Rogan a “good guy.”
Trump and Harris have courted voters with appearances on podcasts, in addition to more traditional rallies and media interviews.
Spotify (SPOT.N), opens new tab said in March “The Joe Rogan Experience” had 14.5 million followers, almost triple the platform’s second most popular program. Rogan also has more than 19 million followers on Instagram and 18 million followers on YouTube.
A poll by YouGov last year found that 81% of his listeners are male and 56% are under 35 years old, a demographic that tends to support Trump over Harris.
Harris’ team had been in touch with Rogan’s program about a possible appearance but her campaign said in late October she will not appear on his podcast.
Rogan joins a list of celebrities like Musk and wrestler Hulk Hogan to have endorsed Trump.
Harris has a much bigger list of celebrity endorsements – ranging from basketball superstar Lebron James and actress Meryl Streep to comedian Chris Rock and former talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Superstar singers Beyonce and Taylor Swift have also endorsed her.
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Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan
By Kanishka Singh and Sheila Dang
November 5, 20249:52 AM GMT+6Updated 4 hours ago
WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) – False or misleading claims by billionaire Elon Musk about the U.S. election have amassed 2 billion views on social media platform X this year, according to a report, opens new tab by non-profit group Center for Countering Digital Hate.
The platform is also playing a central role in enabling the spread of false information about the critical battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential race, election and misinformation experts said on Monday.
A spokesperson for X said the company’s Community Notes feature, which lets users add additional context to posts, is more effective at helping people identify misleading content than traditional warning flags on posts.
Since taking over the company formerly known as Twitter, Musk has curtailed content moderation and laid off thousands of employees. He has thrown his support behind former President Donald Trump, who is locked in an exceptionally close race against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Musk’s massive reach with nearly 203 million followers helps enable “network effects” in which content on X can jump to other social media and messaging platforms such as Reddit and Telegram, said Kathleen Carley, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and expert on disinformation. “X is a conduit from one platform to another,” she said.
At least 87 of Musk’s posts this year have promoted claims about the U.S. election that fact-checkers have rated as false or misleading, amassing 2 billion views, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s report.
In Pennsylvania, one of the seven key swing states, some X users have seized on instances of local election administrators flagging incomplete voter registration forms that would not be processed, falsely casting the events as examples of election interference, said Philip Hensley-Robin, Pennsylvania executive director at Common Cause, during a press briefing on Monday.
Common Cause is a nonpartisan organization that promotes accountable government and voting rights.
Some X accounts implied “that there was voter fraud, when in fact, we know very clearly that election officials and election administrators in all of our counties were following the rules and … therefore only eligible voters are voting,” Hensley-Robin said.
Cyabra, a firm that uses AI to detect online disinformation, said on Monday that an X account with 117,000 followers played a key role in helping spread a fake video purporting to show Pennsylvania mail-in ballots for Trump being destroyed.
X’s spokesperson said the platform took action against many accounts that shared the video.
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Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Sheila Dang in Austin; Additional reporting by Stephanie Burnett; Editing by Lincoln Feast
By Reuters
November 5, 20244:36 AM GMT+6Updated 9 hours ago
- A person picks up a sticker while voters head to a polling station as Georgians turned out a day after the battleground state opened early voting, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., October 16, 2024. REUTERS/Megan Varner/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) – The top court in the battleground state of Georgia ruled on Monday that Cobb County cannot extend the deadline for counting about 3,000 absentee ballots that were sent out shortly before Election Day, handing a victory to the Republican National Committee and presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Siding with the RNC, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned a judge’s ruling extending the deadline until Friday in Cobb County, located in suburban Atlanta. The court decided that only absentee ballots that arrive by 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday (0000 GMT Wednesday) can be counted.
Civil rights groups had sued last week seeking to extend the deadline, arguing that the county violated state law by failing to promptly send out about 3,000 absentee ballots. County officials said they were overwhelmed by a surge in requests.
The Republican National Committee had argued that extending the deadline would violate state law.
“Election Day is Election Day – not the week after,” RNC Chair Michael Whatley wrote in a post on social media.
Cobb County is a large and racially diverse area in Atlanta’s northern suburbs. The county voted for Democrat Joe Biden over Trump by 14 percentage points in the 2020 election. Biden defeated Trump in Georgia in 2020.
A spokesperson for Cobb County did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The state high court ordered that ballots received after Election Day be separated from other ballots and set aside. Voters who did not receive an absentee ballot or did not have enough time to mail it can vote in person on Tuesday.
Georgia is one of seven closely contested states expected to decide the outcome of the race between Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Will Dunham
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