(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Kitchen Table Kibitzing~6/29/24: Great stuff Biden is doing that you'll never hear about [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-29 In news absolutely no one will ever hear about (unless they happen to regularly peruse Scientific American), President Biden’s Department of Housing and Urban Development will now pay air conditioning (“cooling”) costs for 1.6 million residents of public housing. The Biden administration took a significant step toward protecting the nation’s 1.6 million public housing residents from heat by agreeing to pay air conditioning costs for those who ask. Forecasters say this summer could be the hottest on record. The move by the Department of Housing and Urban Development comes as advocates urge HUD to go one step further and formally agree to pay all residents’ air conditioning costs regardless of whether they request help. HUD has long required most residents to pay air conditioning bills under a policy established decades ago when cooling was considered a luxury and before global warming pushed temperatures to record highs. From the HUD press release: WASHINGTON - Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced new guidance on the use of HUD funding to help mitigate the impacts of extreme heat for nearly 1.6 million residents in public housing especially for those most vulnerable, including older Americans, infants and young children, and people with chronic medical conditions…. These new options allow PHAs to increase utility allowances for residents or forgo surcharges for the use of cooling, so that residents can use air conditioning during periods of severe or extreme heat. Hopefully those folks who live in public housing will be voting for President Biden this fall. Because I can guarantee this action would be immediately repealed by an incoming Trump administration under Project 2025 (the entire Trump plan for actual, real-life governance which, incidentally, was never mentioned during the debate). Here’s some more news few are likely to hear: The Biden administration on Wednesday announced $375 million in funding for renewable energy projects, predominantly through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The funding, announced by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, includes $275 million through the Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program, an IRA program devoted to renewable electrification in rural areas. The funds will go to communities in Alaska, Arizona, Kentucky and Nebraska. The two largest awards will go to battery energy storage systems in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Soldotna Substation in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, both of which will receive $100 million. I’ve been to Soldotna and Kenai twice. I was really happy to have electricity when I was there, and I’m sure the people I was staying with are happy about that too. It’s very helpful for cooking salmon among other things. Under Trump’s Project 2025 all renewable energy projects are eliminated. And this: The Biden administration on Wednesday said it will impose inflation penalties on 64 prescription drugs for the third quarter of this year, lowering costs for certain older Americans enrolled in Medicare. President Joe Biden has made lowering U.S. drug prices a key pillar of his health-care agenda and reelection platform for 2024. A provision of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act requires drugmakers to pay rebates to Medicare, the federal health program for Americans over age 65, if they hike the price of a medication faster than the rate of inflation. It is separate from another provision under the law that allows Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices with manufacturers. On average, Americans pay two to three times more than patients in other developed nations for prescription drugs, according to the Biden administration. Pfizer is one of the drug companies that’s probably unhappy with these lowered costs for consumers. Gee that’s too bad. How will they ever stay in business? Well, under Trump’s “Project 2025” the entire Inflation Reduction Act, including the initiatives described above, would be repealed. So there’s that. Or this: The Biden administration is unveiling steps to increase affordable housing as home and rent costs continue to rise. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will announce new initiatives Monday to address the supply of housing. The Treasury Department said in its announcement that the new steps will “strengthen” programs and policies, such as tax incentives and fiscal recovery programs, that address affordable housing. [***] The initiatives will include establishing a new program that will give an additional $100 million over the next three years to support funding affordable housing and urging Federal Home Loan Banks to boost their spending on housing programs, among other measures. Can’t imagine why anyone would want to hear about funding more affordable housing! It’s not like anyone’s actually out there looking for a place to live. And finally, this: WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior today awarded $126.7 million through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda for Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, New York and Ohio to address legacy pollution. Orphaned oil and gas wells are polluting backyards, recreation areas, and community spaces across the country. Many of these wells pose serious health and safety threats to the air we breathe and water we drink by contaminating surface and groundwater, releasing toxic air pollutants, and leaking methane – a “super pollutant” that is a significant cause of climate change and many times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Plugging orphaned wells supports broader Biden-Harris administration efforts under the U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan. With this funding, the five states will collectively plug nearly 600 wells and inventory additional undocumented orphaned wells in preparation for future plugging activities. Well, If pollution has been around long enough to be called “legacy” pollution, maybe we should just respect that status and just let it stay the way it is, amirite? These measures were all announced in this week alone. None of these projects or initiatives — or a thousand more like it -- would occur in a reanimated Trump administration. All of them would be killed on Day One under Project 2025. Yeah, that thing that CNN never asked about. I suppose there’s an argument to be made that Biden should have brought it up. But really? A detailed plan to turn the country into a rabid Christian nationalist regime, complete with loyalty tests, mass deportations, co-opting the FBI and DOJ to serve as Trump’s secret police, shutting down the Departments of Energy and Education, replacing the Dept. of Homeland Security and gutting all efforts to fight climate change? That didn’t even warrant a question by these moderators? Please. CNN was worse than useless. Apropos of nothing, the man writer Eve Babitz described as “Bing Crosby from Hell.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/29/2249673/-Kitchen-Table-Kibitzing-5-29-24-Great-stuff-Biden-is-doing-that-you-ll-never-hear-about?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/