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The Number of Jobs the Inflation Reduction Act Could Create in Mississippi | Mississippi

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Samuel Stebbins, 24/7 Wall St. via The Center Square – 2023-07-27 09:09:29

After narrowly passing through a Democratically controlled Congress along party lines, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law on Aug. 16, 2022. The law allocates $500 billion in new spending. While it may marginally reduce inflation over the long term, its largest impact will likely be on the U.S. energy grid, as most of the money in it is slated for clean energy initiatives.

Through a range of federal subsidies, including rebates, loans, and tax credits, the IRA provides incentives to households, businesses, and state and local governments to invest in clean energy while moving away from fossil fuels. With nearly $370 billion in clean energy funding, the act marks the most significant action the U.S. has ever taken toward addressing climate change.

Not only could the IRA result in a 40% to 50% reduction in America’s greenhouse gas emissions, as Democrats in Washington have argued, but it could also be a boon for the job market — particularly in hard-hit sectors, like manufacturing. According to the independent, nonprofit clean energy advocacy group, Rocky Mountain Institute, the IRA could create over 1.3 million new jobs in 2030 alone.

Based on data from the Rocky Mountain Institute, Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act could create as many as 9,628 jobs in Mississippi in 2030 — or one job for every 307 people, the second fewest among the 48 contiguous states.

As of 2022, 49,142 Mississippi residents were unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Based on these most recent annual unemployment figures, the number of potential new jobs the IRA could bring in 2030 would reduce joblessness by 19.6% in the state.

All data on the number of potential new jobs created by the IRA in 2030 is from the Rocky Mountain Institute’s report, The Economic Tides Just Turned for States. Alaska and Hawaii were not included in this analysis.

 

Rank State Num. of state residents per job created by the IRA in 2030 Potential new jobs created by the IRA in 2030 New jobs in 2030 as pct. of 2022 unemployed pop. (%)
1 Utah 251.3 13,423 33.2
2 Idaho 253.9 7,457 29.5
3 Texas 257.5 116,280 20.4
4 North Dakota 257.7 3,106 35.6
5 Nevada 260.0 12,251 14.6
6 Colorado 260.4 22,742 23.4
7 Washington 261.0 30,273 18.0
8 Florida 261.1 84,592 27.0
9 Arizona 268.4 27,209 19.7
10 South Carolina 271.9 19,187 24.9
11 Oregon 272.1 15,873 17.5
12 Georgia 272.2 40,112 25.2
13 Delaware 273.1 3,692 16.5
14 Montana 275.1 4,011 26.8
15 North Carolina 275.4 38,568 20.5
16 South Dakota 277.1 3,252 33.1
17 Tennessee 277.1 25,348 22.3
18 Virginia 280.2 31,255 24.6
19 Minnesota 281.1 20,588 24.9
20 Nebraska 281.7 7,060 28.4
21 Massachusetts 281.8 25,290 18.0
22 Maryland 282.9 22,117 21.5
23 California 285.7 140,005 17.3
24 New Jersey 287.2 32,689 18.6
25 Oklahoma 287.6 13,914 24.4
26 Alabama 288.9 17,557 29.6
27 Iowa 290.2 11,092 23.6
28 Indiana 290.5 23,568 23.1
29 New Hampshire 290.5 4,784 24.7
30 Rhode Island 291.8 3,792 20.8
31 New York 291.8 69,790 17.0
32 Kentucky 293.2 15,482 19.4
33 Wisconsin 293.9 20,196 22.4
34 Arkansas 295.1 10,271 22.6
35 Kansas 296.1 9,978 24.9
36 New Mexico 296.6 7,179 18.8
37 Missouri 296.8 20,848 27.1
38 Vermont 296.8 2,178 24.1
39 Louisiana 296.9 15,771 20.7
40 Maine 297.6 4,601 23.1
41 Pennsylvania 298.2 43,801 15.5
42 Wyoming 298.3 1,943 18.7
43 Ohio 298.5 39,702 17.2
44 Michigan 299.6 33,761 16.6
45 Connecticut 303.4 11,904 14.8
46 Illinois 307.2 41,694 14.1
47 Mississippi 307.4 9,628 19.6
48 West Virginia 318.9 5,587 18.2

 

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News from the South - Louisiana News Feed

Carbon capture hearings will hear from concerned residents, industry | Louisiana

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Nolan McKendry | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-25 16:45:00

(The Center Square) − Louisiana Rep. Joseph Orgeron, R-Jefferson, is taking a less cautious position on carbon capture — acknowledging local concerns while defending the role the technology can play in reducing industrial emissions.

Orgeron will vice chair a high-stakes showdown over the future of carbon capture in Louisiana at the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee on Tuesday, where lawmakers are set to hear a sweeping package of bills aimed at reining in the state’s growing carbon sequestration industry.

“I sympathize with those constituents who are looking for the opt-out option—to not have it in their parish,” Orgeron told The Center Square in an interview. “But I represent an area basically awash in hydrocarbon harvesting from the early ’50s, ’60s. We’ve had our environment kind of shared with the hydrocarbon harvesting industry, so we’re a little bit more open to it.”

Orgeron chairs the state’s Clean Hydrogen Task Force and has positioned himself as an advocate for low-carbon technologies that can reduce emissions without sidelining Louisiana’s traditional energy sector.

“In Louisiana, we have the hydrocarbons, like natural gas, that can then be cracked to make the hydrogen feedstock that’s needed,” Orgeron said. “And rather than release [the carbon] into the environment… basically capture that carbon and sequester it safely in underground pore space that we also have a large amount of.”

Still, he acknowledged the desire of some parishes to block carbon capture developments and said he would support local opt-outs — though not without consequence.

“They would have to relinquish any and all benefits, monetary benefits, that they may receive from the added space, the added industry… that may come from carbon sequestration in the state,” Orgeron said.

The legislation, driven largely by Republican lawmakers from western and central Louisiana, targets everything from eminent domain powers to public notice requirements, with an emphasis on strengthening landowner rights and local control.

Rep. Rodney Schamerhorn, R-Beauregard, said in a previous interview that past land seizures for projects like Fort Polk and the Toledo Bend Reservoir have left lasting scars in his region, fueling deep mistrust of new carbon capture initiatives. While many residents initially supported the technology, he said they now feel misled about its purpose and risks.

The committee will also take up House Bill 4 by Rep. Charles Owen, HB353 by Rep. Shane Mack, HB522 by Rep. Danny McCormick, HB568 by Rep. R. Dewith Carrier, and Senate Bill 73 by Sen. Mike Reese.

The wave of proposals comes amid mounting scrutiny of carbon infrastructure, particularly in light of a 2020 pipeline rupture in Satartia, Miss. that released a cloud of CO2 into a nearby town when a landslide hit, causing residents to collapse or suffer seizures from oxygen deprivation.

Industry leaders are pushing back.

“This is a business opportunity,” said Tommy Faucheux, president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association. “If we lose that, the investments — and the jobs — will go elsewhere.”

“These CCS projects and the associated development could transform communities in ways they’ve never seen,” Faucheux said. “We’re talking about economic development in parts of Louisiana that haven’t traditionally benefited from the oil and gas footprint.”

“The industry has been spending a lot of time engaging with communities, with land owners,” he added. “The companies want to work and come to agreements with all the landowners. They want to have conversations about pipeline routes, for instance. The use of eminent domain has not been something we’ve prioritized or really led with. I think it has been really more the exception than the standard.”

 

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News from the South - North Carolina News Feed

Eradication of divisive medical education policies applauded | North Carolina

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-25 15:59:00

(The Center Square) – Eliminating policies in higher education that U.S. Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy believes are detrimental to the best in health care is a step in the right direction, the North Carolina Republican says.



U.S. Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy, R-N.C.




“I applaud the Trump administration for rooting out the discriminatory and demeaning requirements of DEI in medication education,” Murphy said, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion. “These practices reward political activism and not merit. Patients deserve better.

“Liberal apologists played with patient’s lives to push a progressive discriminatory agenda. Doctors need to be selected as the brightest and hardest working, not on identity politics.”

Murphy’s assessment came a day after President Donald Trump’s executive order entitled Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education.

The third graph of Section 2 reads in part, “The attorney general and the secretary of Education, in consultation with the secretary of Health and Human Services, shall investigate and take appropriate action to terminate unlawful discrimination by American medical schools or graduate medical education entities that is advanced by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education or the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education or other accreditors of graduate medical education, including unlawful ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ requirements under the guise of accreditation standards.”

Murphy, a practicing urologist, has repeatedly chastised the medical schools promoting diversity policies over merit.

Earlier this month, he responded to a writing in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled “Advancing health equity in the climate crisis – A climate justice curriculum for resident physicians.” He said it was “yet another example of irresponsible leadership in medical education.”

Murphy opined, “Instead of learning to take care of patients, medical residents are studying this nonsense. No wonder the questions about NIH funding are being asked.”

The National Institutes of Health operates with a budget of $47 billion. For worldwide biomedical research, it is the largest public funder.

Murphy believes the American health care system “is killing the patient” with the middlemen, including the education component.

He’s also spoken out on the Association of American Medical Colleges, saying it has been “exposed for their racially divisive lies.” A significant infant-mortality study, The National Review reported, was edited to preserve racial perspective. The story says “researchers deliberately obscured a data point about white babies under the care of Black physicians because ‘it undermines the narrative.’”

“Falsifying research,” Murphy said, “is why Americans have lost trust in medical education. All those involved in this scandal need to resign.”

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The Center Square

Feds launch investigation into UC Berkeley for not reporting CCP funding | California

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www.thecentersquare.com – Kenneth Schrupp – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-25 14:45:00

(The Center Square) – The United States Department of Education announced it is investigating the University of California, Berkeley for not reporting significant funding from the Chinese government.

“The Biden-Harris Administration turned a blind eye to colleges and universities’ legal obligations by deprioritizing oversight and allowing foreign gifts to pour onto American campuses,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “I have great confidence in my Office of General Counsel to investigate these matters fully, and they will begin by thoroughly examining U.C. Berkeley’s apparent failure to fully and accurately disclose significant funding received from foreign sources.” 

A 2023 House of Representatives investigation found Berkeley violated Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, which requires disclosure of foreign funding over $250,000, saying Chinese funding of American research institutions facilitates transfer of American-funded technology with military applications to the Chinese government.

“U.S.-Chinese joint education institutes like U.C. Berkeley’s partnership with Tsinghua University, and the University of Pittsburgh’s partnership with Sichuan University, serve as conduits for transferring critical U.S. technologies and expertise to China, including to entities linked to China’s defense machine and the security apparatus it uses to facilitate human rights abuses,” said Select Committee on the CCP in a report. 

At the time, Berkeley told the committee that it is “relinquishing all ownership” in the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute. 

It also cited a Trump administration executive order directing the DOE to launch Section 117 investigations to secure compliance with reporting requirements that must be followed to continue receiving federal grant funding. 

In its announcement last week of a similar Section 117 investigation into Harvard University, DOE noted, “Noncompliance risks Department of Justice enforcement, including civil actions, or loss of federal funding eligibility.” 

The Department of Education says that “Berkeley’s responses revealed a fundamental misunderstanding regarding its Section 117 reporting obligations” in justifying its renewed investigation.

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