Kamala Harris, in Seattle, says the clock ‘is banging’ on climate change - The Seattle Times

Kamala Harris, in Seattle, says the clock ‘is banging’ on climate change | The Seattle Times

Vice President Kamala Harris, in Seattle on Tuesday, said we are seeing the effects of climate change “in real time,” while touting the massive investments the Biden administration has made in clean energy to combat its most severe impacts.

Harris’ speech, at a South Seattle design and construction firm, was timed to mark the anniversary of the administration’s landmark climate legislation.

“Every day around the world the impact of the climate crisis is stark and it is vivid,” she said to a couple hundred invited guests at the South Seattle headquarters of McKinstry. “Here in Washington state you have endured deadly heat waves and devastating wildfires.”

She spoke of communities across the country “choked by drought, washed out by flood and decimated by hurricanes” and of the burning of the city of Lahaina on Maui.

“It is clear the clock is not just ticking, it is banging,” Harris said.

The law, the Inflation Reduction Act, makes the largest federal investment in history to battle climate change, around $375 billion over a decade in direct funding, tax credits and loans for clean-energy technology, energy-efficiency projects and air-pollution controls.

Harris said the law has helped create more than 175,000 new clean-energy jobs across the country in the past year, doing things like building solar panels, installing new high-voltage transmission lines and replacing gas furnaces with electric heat pumps.

She spoke for a little under 15 minutes before touring McKinstry, a green construction firm that has benefited from the law’s tax credits. The Seattle facility produces sheet metal projects, HVAC equipment and plumbing systems and has about 800 employees, said Ash Awad, McKinstry president and chief marketing officer.

Then-Sen. Barack Obama toured the same McKinstry facility in 2008, during his first campaign for president.

Speaking before Harris, a series of Democratic officials sang the climate law’s praises, while emphasizing that there was more work to do.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the law’s tax credits can be up to 70% of a clean-energy project’s cost, if it meets thresholds like paying prevailing wages, using registered apprentices, using American-made components or locating in a low-income community.

Companies, in the last year, have announced $110 billion of clean energy projects in the U.S., Granholm said.

“We are the irresistible nation for clean energy investment,” she said.

Gov. Jay Inslee, whose own presidential campaign four years ago was focused on battling climate change, cited recent flooding and the wildfires on Maui.

“This is not your grandmother’s climate change,” he said. “This is a new beast.”

The law, paid for by new taxes on big businesses and increased IRS enforcement on the wealthy, also extends subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, caps prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients and allows Medicare, for the first time, to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.

“The government has put into effect some market certainty so some technology like solar and wind, that were on the half to start to have incentives run out are now back on a level playing field,” Megan Owen, a vice president with McKinstry, said in a video touting the law. “Our markets thrive when we have certainty, we have time our side, and there’s now at least a 10-year window where we know the funding is going to be available.”

Harris arrived on Air Force 2 at Boeing Field on Tuesday morning with second gentleman Doug Emhoff. She was met on the tarmac by Inslee, Lt. Gov. Denny Heck, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, among others. Constantine and Harrell snapped photos.

After the event at McKinstry, Harris was headed to speak at a private fundraiser in Medina, co-hosted by Microsoft President Brad Smith.

Donors attending the event will fork over $5,000 per person, with higher-level donation tiers of $10,000 and $25,000 granting a photo with the vice president, and $50,000 garnering a “host” designation, according to a copy of an invitation obtained by The Seattle Times.

Harris was last in Seattle about 10 months ago, also touting clean technology and fitting in a fundraiser. In that, her first visit to Seattle as vice president, she promoted nearly $1 billion in funding for school districts to upgrade to electric school buses, part of the bipartisan infrastructure law passed in late 2021.

The Seattle Department of Transportation has warned of traffic delays around midday Tuesday, as the Secret Service has the authority to close streets and highways for security reasons.