Making the concert-going experience more sustainable
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There are new details of how the Senate wants to tax and spend with an attempt to postpone a hotly contested matter involving deductions for state and local taxes. I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee have unveiled their version of the mega tax and spending bill. They did it last evening. This differs from the House passed version on some flashpoint issues. Marketplace's Henry Epp has an update.

Some tax breaks in the Senate committee version are less generous than those passed by the House. For example, the Senate proposes raising the child tax credit to $2,200, less than the House's $2,500. The Senate would also put limits on deductions for tipped income and overtime pay. And it would keep the cap on state and local tax deductions at $10,000, well below the House's proposed $40,000.

The Senate version would also more aggressively cut Medicaid by limiting the provider tax set by states. Like the House, it would set work requirements for some Medicaid recipients. But the Senate would give green energy companies more time than the House to start projects that qualify for tax credits passed under former President Joe Biden, though it would more quickly end tax credits for buyers of new and used electric vehicles.

and the Senate would raise the debt ceiling higher than the House to $5 trillion rather than $4 trillion. GOP leaders want to reconcile all these issues and pass the bill before the 4th of July. I'm Henry App for Marketplace.

The Washington Post is reporting the Trump administration has issued new directives to ICE agents to resume immigration raids on farms and hotels. For a couple of days, President Trump and his administration had seemed to be backing off farms and hotels, with Trump posting comments about immigrants providing important work in those sectors.

The president has left the Group of Seven summit in Canada early for reasons that are unclear but possibly connected to the Israel-Iran military strikes. On financial matters, there was no U.S. trade deal announcement with Japan, but the U.S. did sign off on a trade deal with Britain. The BBC's Chris Mason has more from the summit in Alberta, Canada.

Amid the tariff turbulence from the White House, a certain triumph up to a point for Downing Street. The aerospace industry will see tariffs removed completely. There'll be a 10% levy on the car industry. One wrinkle is, while UK government officials point out that Britain is the only country to be exempt from the global tariff of 50% on steel and aluminium, a 25% tariff does remain. Negotiations to remove this continue. This

This isn't the full-fat US-UK trade deal some once envisioned, and it's been reached in a rather unorthodox way. But amid his domestic political woes, it is an achievement for the Prime Minister on the international stage few other leaders can boast of.

With reports Iran is seeking de-escalation with Israel, the price of crude oil is up just modestly this morning, 1.3% in New York, $72.63 a barrel now. That's about 7% higher than it was before Israel first launched its military strikes late last week.

Now to the business of rock and roll and lowering the impact of concert tours on the earth. Reverb, a non-profit that works to create a more environmentally friendly music industry, has a new study that looks at the impact of traveling to music events. It finds a lot of interest among music lovers in more sustainable transportation options. Reverb's co-founder and co-executive director Adam Gardner joins us now. You might also know him as guitarist and singer for the band Guster. Adam, welcome back.

Thanks for having me. I think about the impact of going to a concert and, you know, you see piles of trash at the ones that are not managed correctly. You can see, you know,

mountains of single-use water bottles. But really, it's the travel when you're looking for carbon footprint. And you think that's a place where carbon could be saved? Yeah, it has to be. It's just by far the largest part of any concert's footprint, which, you know, if you think about it, makes sense. But it's really a symptom of a larger infrastructural and transportation issue in our country.

But music is a high-profile industry, and if there's a way for it to be a catalyst for change on a municipal level, when we're talking about public transit and cultural level, I'm talking about people actually using it, this is what we're excited about. And I was looking at the study. It was also striking. You just got to – a key part of this is letting people know that there are alternatives for getting there than necessarily driving alone in a car. They're not.

everywhere. And I don't want to place this responsibility all on fans because it isn't. And again, what's interesting is fans want this, but they're not given the information or there isn't the infrastructure there. So it's a responsibility that's shared from the venues to the promoters of the concerts. The artists can be playing a huge role in communicating those options.

And there's local business opportunities with party buses and shuttles. And we've seen some solutions already starting to happen. This thing for me is it came out of a natural place. I think a lot of people who go to concerts can relate. When's the last time you've gone to a show and at the end of the night, you haven't had to make that decision between seeing the encore or leaving early so you don't have to sit in traffic to get out of there?

Is there a kind of underwriters seal of approval for shows that are making an effort with regard to the environment? The artists are playing a big role in being the cheerleader, for lack of a better term. The good news is also coming out of

the COVID shutdown, a lot more energy in the music industry is focused on sustainability in a real way. Before it was, well, maybe when we get to it, but now people are starting to understand that there's a real demand, not only from the artists that are playing these venues, but the fans that are attending. So we're very excited about that. I think, again, it really comes down, we call the three I's, information, infrastructure, and incentive. That's what's going to move the needle with concert travel.

Adam Gardner is co-founder of the nonprofit Reverb that works on environmental issues as they impact the music industry and the concert industry. You can read more about Reverb's concert travel study on our website, marketplace.org. Also, Adam sings and plays guitar, does a lot of things for the band Guster. Thank you for doing this. Thanks, David. Thanks for having me. In Los Angeles, I'm David Brancaccio. You're listening to the Marketplace Morning Report.

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