President Joe Biden is offering one of his White House challengers hundreds of millions of dollars to spend in his state. The only problem: that opponent is refusing to take it.
The Inflation Reduction Act makes Florida eligible for some $350 million in energy efficiency incentives. But Gov. Ron DeSantis has rejected the funding and other measures, creating the most prominent blockade by any Republican governor against Biden’s economic agenda.
And there’s nothing the White House can do besides hope he changes his mind.
The rejection has the potential to create significant ripple effects, politically and economically, in the coming months. As the president and his Cabinet members go around the country boasting about the IRA, rebates for energy-efficient purchases — the majority of the funding that DeSantis has refused — have played a particularly prominent role. That’s not just because they underpin the administration’s climate agenda but because they provide direct rebates to consumers.
Part of me is okay with this not because I don’t want green initiatives, but because it would be wasted on a state that will need a large population exodus. If we are thinking about climate change long term, we should not be encouraging people to be in or stay in Florida. Build the infrastructure elsewhere.
The same should be going for Arizona, where they’re building all the new chip fabs. And where there are already water shortages and not enough people to staff them.
Arizona is very efficient with water usage for the most part - especially in terms of residential and industrial usage. The big problem and water suck is agriculture in the region.
Wait until you learn how much water fabs use.
Arizona agricultural water usage: 4,400 million gallons per day (source).
Semiconductor fab: 2-4 million gallons per day (source).
So, not really the same scale unless you think Arizona is going to end up with more semiconductor fabs than Taiwan (and not really even then).
Hard agree. Idk what the hell they are thinking.
Tectonic stability is actually really important for chip fabrication, and the most stable location in the country happens to be Arizona.
Oh neat, appreciate that info. That makes more sense.
Yeah! Can’t have even the slightest tremors when making parts that need nanometer-level precision!
How does that work in Taiwan then? They have the best fabs in the world and are incredibly earthquake prone. I know Taipei 101 has the huge earthquake dampener, I wonder if there something similar stabilizing TSMC plants?
Not quite sure. This article seems to brush the issue aside with “semiconductor fab building techniques help minimize risk of damage from earthquakes” but doesn’t explain what those techniques are.
Not really sure about in fabs for manufacturing, but whenever I was in college I had access to an electron microscope. It had its own foundation separate from the rest of the building to minimize vibrations. I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but that’s at least one technique.
You know what place is essentially just as stable and isn’t suffering a catastrophic water shortage? The entire great lakes region. There isn’t a valid excuse anymore for frivolously increasing the water useage in Arizona.
That’s also part of why a lot of large telescope mirrors get made in Tucson, at the University of Arizona!
Hadn’t heard that before, very cool!
Yeah, another big disaster or two and it’ll be impossible to get homeowner’s insurance policies - and therefore, mortgages - on a large portion of Florida real estate.
I think the new hurricane coming their way in a few days will do it. It’s already been upgraded from a cat3 to cat4 and possibly may be even cat5 by landfall.