There's too much operating need for carbon-heavy energy, and climate change is too far along, for society to do all its sustainability work through a switch to renewable fuels. Removing carbon from the atmosphere becomes necessary - and financing the removal involves a range of risks.

Many have boiled down the seminal Inflation Reduction Act, and many are burrowing into it. To set boundaries and context beyond the timing of tax credits, consider an analogy to how another blockbuster set of policies altered one of the world's more emissions-intensive cities.

Putting the news in context sometimes requires a beat and a pinpoint. In this column, CEFF's editor focuses on how local officials responding to local pressures govern how far and how fast renewable projects can deploy in any economic context.