A grant program in the Inflation Reduction Act is spurring almost every state to make a climate plan.

As of today, less than half of all states have set forth targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Within two years, almost all of them will have climate goals.

Bill Gates is backing a new startup called Graphyte, located in Arkansas. It plans to open its operation this Friday, February 9, 2024. The facility relies on biomass matter like sawdust and farming waste. When these decompose they release a lot of carbon into the atmosphere. Graphyte plans to stop this decomposition process by drying the waste out, shaping it into bricks and burying the bricks in the ground for many years, thus keeping this carbon from being released into the atmosphere.

In the small town of Holyoke, Massachusetts, bulldozers have been removing a paper mill. The new ground on the banks of the Connecticut River will soon be home of a large industrial experiment. If it pays off, Paper City may soon become Clean Cement Capital. A startup, Sublime Systems has developed a process for producing cement without releasing any carbon emissions.

Researchers at the Rhodium Group have eleven answers.

The Biden administrations Inflation Reduction Act helps regulate carbon pollution from power plants and cars and trucks. Progressive states such as California, New York, and Illinois responded by passing tougher climate laws of their own. To reach the Paris Agreement goal of cutting carbon emissions in half at the end of this decade, where will America’s remaining greenhouse gas emissions come from? What should climate policy focus on next?

Robinson Meyer from HeatMap writes that “We’re back to emitting like it’s 1991 – even with a bigger economy.”

The first time since the beginning of the pandemic both America’s economy and carbon emissions moved in the right direction. America’s greenhouse gas pollution from energy and industrial activities fell by 1.9% in 2023 compared to the year before. It’s the first time in this decade that the U.S. has hit the mark of growing its economy and cutting its climate pollution at the same time.