The Big Story 

Upending months of relatively mild wildfire weather, a Southern California blaze — fueled by Santa Ana winds — has forced the evacuation of thousands over the past three days. 

© Ethan Swope/Associated Press

The Highland Fire had grown to about 2,487 acres and was only 10 percent contained by late Tuesday night, according to a joint update from CAL FIRE and Riverside County Fire Department.  

The blaze had destroyed three structures and injured one firefighter by Tuesday night and led to widespread evacuations across the area.  

About 1,220 households and 4,270 residents received mandatory evacuation orders, while an additional 1,136 homes and 3,976 people were facing evacuation warnings as of Tuesday night, Reuters reported.  

While fire growth on Tuesday was minimal, officials warned that easterly winds would likely persist in the area through Thursday evening — pushing the blaze in a west-southwest direction. 

The Highland Fire is a departure from what had thus far been a comparatively quiet wildfire season for Southern California — due in large part to an unusually wet winter. 

“This year, what we have in fact, in many parts of California, is an unusually moist year,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said at a Monday webinar.  

“And in the summer, a lot of places in California saw some out-of-season precipitation — Southern California saw its wettest summer on record in most places,” he continued.  

Swain acknowledged that extreme fire conditions can still occur in such circumstances with a combination of low humidity and strong winds.  

But he stressed that “if the vegetation isn’t dry enough to support extreme fire behavior, you often aren’t going to get it.” 

“That’s what we’re seeing this year in California, fortunately,” Swain said.  

“It’s a combination, yes, of some good luck — lack of ignitions perhaps in the worst possible places — but also the fact that the vegetation just isn’t extremely dry this year,” he added.  

As far as the Highland Fire is concerned, evacuation orders remained in effect on Wednesday, and details about the cause were unavailable, NBC Los Angeles reported.  

“Extremely steep and rugged terrain remains a challenge,” a statement from CAL FIRE said.  

“Current and expected weather of steady winds with low relative humidity may increase the risk of erratic fire behavior,” the statement added.  

Welcome to The Hill’s Sustainability newsletter, we’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin — every week we follow the latest moves in the growing battle over sustainability in the U.S. and around the world.

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Essential Reads 

Latest news impacting sustainability this week and beyond:

Biden administration boosts support for Colorado coal community revitalization

Heat attack: Black seniors bear unequal burden of cardiac deaths from rising temperatures

Will El Niño bring a wet or dry winter? For much of the US West, it’s a coin flip

Antarctica’s glaciers are melting from beneath, speeding sea-level rise

Green Jobs 

© AP Photo

Clean energy projects funded during the first year of the Democrats’ signature clean energy stimulus program could lead to nearly half a million new jobs over the next five years, according to a new report. 

First year impacts: The analysis by BW Research — commissioned by the environmental nonprofit E2 — evaluated potential long-term impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) initial investments.   

The IRA was signed into law in August 2022. 
 

Building boom: The group analyzed the broader effects of the 210 projects announced between August 2022 and August 2023. The bulk of these were new factories to manufacture electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels, windmill parts and batteries.

• They found that building these factories would support 400,000 jobs per year for the next five years — mostly in construction — while adding $155 billion to the national gross domestic product. 
• After construction was done, they estimated the new projects would be responsible for about 100,000 manufacturing and maintenance jobs and about $13 billion per year in additional GDP. 

Quick review: The passage of the IRA occurred along strict party lines — with Democrats promoting the legislation as a sweeping clean energy stimulus package.  

In addition to billions in direct subsidies, the package included a massive line of tax credits: a flat 30 percent off of production or purchase of products like EVs, renewable energy or battery storage. 

Sea change: These incentives were both unprecedented and potentially unlimited, because there is no cap on the number of projects that qualify for the tax credit. 

• The Congressional Budget Office initially assumed that the law would allow $270 billion in tax credits — a number based on an estimate of how many new renewable projects would claim it. 
• But because of faster-than-expected investment in clean energy, new appraisals from the Joint Committee on Taxation indicate that the tax credits may be worth more like $660 billion. 

Where did most of the funds go? The lion’s share of both investment and future jobs went to the EV industry, according to Wednesday’s report.

• This sector accounted for 58 percent of the past year’s IRA-stimulated investment dollars and 185,700 jobs annually. 
• Those funds will help finance the creation of projects like a Hyundai EV plant in Georgia, a General Motors EV factory in Ohio and a battery plant in Kentucky. 

Runners up: The battery storage industry will support another 58,000 jobs annually, for the next five years, followed by the solar industry with 35,000. 
 

Jobs for GOP strongholds: The majority of the past year’s new IRA-funded projects has gone to Republican districts, according to a September report from advocacy group Climate Power.

• That report found that 200 of the 388 new projects had gone into 109 Republican-controlled districts.
• Those projects were anticipated to create about 120,000 new jobs. 

Democrats claim credit: Former Environmental Protection Agency director and national climate advisor Gina McCarthy praised the recent numbers as an example of the effectiveness of Biden and national Democrats’ clean energy plans.

• “In every corner of our country, growing the economy goes hand-in-hand with tackling the climate crisis,” McCarthy said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. 
• “This isn’t some far-off dream. We’re building the economy of the future right here in America: one that’s healthier, cleaner, and more just.” 

On Our Radar 

Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching:

In Other News 

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Republicans are cheering the cancellation of two offshore wind farms that would have been built off the coast of New Jersey. 

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The State Department on Wednesday announced a partnership with the nonprofit SAFE on the development of critical mineral supply chains, part of broader Biden administration efforts to reduce foreign dependence on such resources.

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What Others are Reading 

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What People Think 

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