Local fires erupt as new climate bill is signed

A vehicle-caused inferno raged over 58 acres, threatening homes in the Eden Canyon area between August 15 and 16, just hours before President Joe Biden was about to sign the Inflation Reduction Act, which included a sweeping climate reform bill.

The Alameda County Fire Department released a statement on August 15 on their Twitter account that there were “no injuries or structures damaged” in the “vehicle fire,” as they called it.

“It’s really sad to see that we’re already in fire season,” said senior and Activism Club President Natalie Bennett. “It’s just something that we have to live with knowing that we live in California.”

The fires came before Biden was ready to sign the Inflation Reduction Act, which included a climate bill. The bill, which was passed by Congress on August 7, sets to invest $300 billion towards climate reform. 

“By 2030, we’ll have 950 million solar panels operating in the United States [and] 120,000 wind turbines operating,” Biden said in a tweet from the official POTUS account on Aug. 16.

Despite its passing and signing, however, the final vote in the Senate was a very close 51-50 near split, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.

“I am very dismayed that so few of our elected leaders and other power brokers think taking action against climate catastrophe is important, or even politically expedient,” said English teacher and former Progressive Student Union advisor Anne Parris.

But the bill did pass, and with its passing are measures that look to reform climate, and, in doing so, plan to regulate wildfires. Subtitle D of the bill, titled “Forestry” states that funding for “forest restoration, wildfire prevention, and related activities” will be included.

The bill will also include tax credits extensions through 2024 for “producing energy from renewable sources…investment in certain energy properties…alternative fuels and fuel mixtures” according to Subtitle D of the bill, titled “Energy Security.”

However, despite these subtitles, increasing natural catastrophes, such as wildfires and brush fires, have environmentalists like Parris and Bennett worried. 

“I do know folks in Kentucky, where the recent catastrophic flooding occurred,” said Parris, continuing, “I have heard about the potential for ‘megafloods’ here and about the dangerous patterns of flooding and drought going on in China.”

Kentucky is not the only place affected by such catastrophes. Climate change-caused algal blooms in Lake Merritt have led to the deaths of several fish. Bennett also cites the recent drought in Europe as another example of the consequences of climate change. These fears, however, do not defeat Bennett.

“We’re trying to get into a step in the right direction,” they said. “We need all the help we can get. It feels like we’re in an impending doom, but we don’t need to make it that way.”