The Inflation Reduction Act Is About to Jumpstart U.S. Climate Policy and Change the World.
Time
[b]In July, a pair of Senators gathered reporters in the U.S. Capitol Building to deliver a message to President Joe Biden: it’s time to declare a climate emergency. It was, to be sure, something of a Hail Mary. The prospects of major climate legislation had dimmed, and the two Democrats were desperate, worried it could be years before Congress tackled climate change in a meaningful way. “Am I concerned that it will be a decade before we have a climate majority?” said Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, alongside Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. “I am damn concerned.”
Less than three weeks later, Democratic Senators walked off the Senate floor in celebration after passing the Inflation Reduction Act, the most significant climate legislation in U.S. history. In the coming days, the House of Representative is expected to follow suit, sending the bill to Biden, who will, with his signature, begin a new era of climate policy in America.
Experts say the legislation will dramatically accelerate the decline in U.S. emissions, putting the country within reach of the Biden Administration’s goal of slashing emissions in half by 2030 when compared to 2005 levels. That goal serves as a barometer of how much climate change-generated pain and destruction the world can avoid, and sets a destination of sorts for all U.S. climate policy. The Inflation Reduction Act offers a framework for how the U.S. will tackle climate change in the eight years until that deadline and beyond. It invests more than $360 billion in energy and climate change programs over the next decade, including enormous tax incentives to advance renewable energy and electric vehicles. The bill still leaves many details to be determined, and battle lines are already forming over the future of fossil fuel production and how to advance environmental justice.
Regardless of how those battles play out, the bill will give the U.S. newfound credibility as a climate leader on the international stage and help convince other countries that the energy transition is irreversible. It’s impossible to know exactly how well every climate provision of the Inflation Reduction Act will work, but what is clear is that once signed into law, it will jumpstart an economic transformation and rejigger international climate politics—with ripple effects that will shape communities large and small, and affect the way Americans live.[/b]
