ICAST Receives Award to Pilot a Multifamily-Focused Redesign of the Weatherization Assistance Program
ICAST is excited to announce that we were recently awarded approximately $1.9 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to launch "WAP 2.0"— an innovative redesign of the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). The WAP, overseen by the DOE, helps reduce low-income (LI) households' energy costs by increasing the energy efficiency of their homes while ensuring their health and safety; it predominantly serves single-family (SF) homes. Through this project, ICAST will demonstrate a focus on multifamily affordable housing (MFAH) while deploying state-of-the-art distributed energy resources (DERs).
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US Crosses the Electric-Car Tipping Point for Mass Adoption
Once 5% of new-car sales go fully electric, everything changes — according to a Bloomberg analysis of the 19 countries that have made the EV pivot.
Many people of a certain age can recall the first time they held a smartphone. The devices were weird and expensive and novel enough to draw a crowd at parties. Then, less than a decade later, it became unusual not to own one.
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ICAST Policy Blog
White House Announcements
Senator Manchin Continues to Stall Climate Action in Congress
On July 28, Senate Democrats unveiled a surprise spending plan which contains $369 B for climate and energy programs over the next ten years. The plan has the blessing of Senator Joe Manchin, who previously stalled or disapproved of other climate/reconciliation bills. This comes on the heels of an earlier declaration that he couldn’t support climate-focused portions of the bill ahead of the August recess. In addition to health care reform issues, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 aims to reduce emissions by approximately 40% by 2030.
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All in favour: Vancouver passes $10,000 gas-station-without-EV-chargers fee
After a round of public engagement and some debate about the merits of putting electric vehicle chargers at gas stations as well as parking lots, the case for accessibility won out and the policy passed with unanimous council support
In a bid to make electric vehicle charging more accessible in Vancouver, city council has unanimously approved a motion that requires all gas stations and parking lots with more than 60 stalls to have EV charging onsite or pay an annual license fee of $10,000 starting in 2025.
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