Photo by Chelsea Watson
...and we still have work to do.
On August 15, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 into law, marking the passage of the single largest investment ever in our climate and communities. The past 18 months of negotiations over this bill have been an exhausting, heartbreaking, hope-inspiring roller-coaster ride. This comes after decades of grassroots movement building and growing public pressure that pushed climate action from the bottom of the to-do list up to a top national priority. The Inflation Reduction Act is far from perfect, but together we've taken a critical step forward with this transformative legislation.
At a time of ever-worsening climate change, record inflation, economic inequality and ongoing racial injustice, the Inflation Reduction Act will invest in climate action and clean energy, affordable healthcare, and racial and economic justice. It will create 9 million good jobs over the next decade. It will improve our public health, preventing thousands of premature deaths and asthma attacks. And it does all this while closing tax loopholes to make giant corporations pay their fair share.
Watch: Webinar to Celebrate the grassroots organizing that we’ve put in over the past couple of years and the real-world benefits the Inflation Reduction Act will bring to everyday people!
To see a full list of all the investments and real-world benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, check out this great factsheet from our team.
Everything that’s good in this bill is there because of people-powered movements. All of you who took action in large ways and small ways — you are the reason we're winning these victories for climate, health, jobs, and justice. Everyone who called or met with your members of Congress. Everyone who voted to elect climate champions into office. Each one of you who wrote a letter to the editor, attended a protest, donated, or talked to your friends and family. This win happened because of you.
National investments of this size and scope weren’t imaginable just a few short years ago. But the growing strength of our movement has rocked the political landscape and changed what is possible.
A "Fight for Our Future" event in Los Angeles. Photo by Eugenie Lewis
It’s important to celebrate how far we’ve come.
Here’s a quick recap:
Back in the fall of 2020 when we faced the prospect of a Democratic president and Congress, our intersectional movement laid out the vision for a Green New Deal through a platform known as the THRIVE Resolution (Transform, Heal, and Renew by Investing in a Vibrant Economy). Then, with President Biden sworn into office and the new Democratic majority in Congress, we worked with our elected officials to introduce this movement-led vision as concrete legislation.
THRIVE was the first iteration of what would become President Biden’s Build Back Better Act, and then later, the Inflation Reduction Act. In each iteration, the legislation was diminished greatly in size and scope — but also came closer to securing the 50 needed votes in the Senate.
When many thought legislation like this was a pipe dream, our movements pushed forward. We elected progressive champs to fight for us in Congress, built enormous public pressure to put climate action on the top of President Biden’s to-do list, and then rallied to keep this bill as strong as possible.
At the Earth Day "Fight for Our Future" rally in Phoenix Arizona. Photo by Ana Gorla
This has always been the role of social movements — to present bold visions for what our people really need, and then to fight to win what we can given the political reality (all while fighting to shift that political reality to make new things possible).
Every step of the way, Sierra Club members and supporters across the country:
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Organized and attended lobby visits with your members of Congress (and called them, and emailed them, and tweeted at them — did anyone ever send that carrier pigeon?)
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Hosted action parties and art builds to recruit your friends and family into action
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Posted on social media to spread awareness about these crucial investments
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Wrote letters to the editors of your local papers
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Showed up at protests and rallies around the country to fight for our future and our vision for a more just world
And yet, this is not the climate bill we wanted. It reflects the outsized influence of corporate polluters in our politics. The Inflation Reduction Act is a result of over a year of negotiations (and final secret deals) with Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia – a coal baron millionaire – and the resulting compromise is far from perfect. The final package includes provisions that could lock us into federal oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters in already heavily polluted places like the Gulf South, including mandated offshore fossil fuel lease sales that are tethered to the development of clean energy.
As part of his price to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, Senator Manchin also got Democratic leadership to commit to supporting a separate piece of legislation — a polluter loophole bill that would fast-track permit approvals for dangerous fossil fuel projects.
No one has seen the official legislation yet, but the one-page summary of the deal that Manchin released is a disaster: it guts bedrock environmental protections, endangers public health, fast-tracks fossil fuels, and pushes approval for Manchin’s pet project, the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Draft legislative text that’s circulating is just as bad; it even bears a watermark from the American Petroleum Institute!
These harmful provisions of the potential polluter loophole would especially affect Black, Brown, Indigenous and low-income communities that have long borne the brunt of pollution from fossil fuels. We’re calling on Congress to stop this dirty deal and protect our communities, our voices, and our climate. Moving forward, our movements must do everything we can to limit the harm while maximizing the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act.
We know who’s responsible for us not winning more. Elected officials backed by corporate and fossil fuel polluters — including Senator Manchin and the entire Republican Party — fought to block investments in climate, care, jobs, and justice while catering to fossil fuel interests at the expense of frontline communities in places like Appalachia, Alaska, and the Gulf South. Despite overwhelming support from the public for transformative change, the influence of corporate polluters in our politics was able to undermine the Inflation Reduction Act and continues to demonstrate how deeply imperiled our democracy is. We all deserve better than a fossil fuel millionaire’s version of a climate bill.
This bill is a crucial step forward, and it is a testament to the power our movement has built. The Inflation Reduction Act will change the course of history and change the lives of millions of people. To everyone who played a part in making this possible: Thank you. The long, hard work of movement building will continue. We have a lot more work to do in our fight for a world where all of us can survive and thrive.
The task ahead of us is clear: We must continue to build an intersectional movement powerful enough to take on corporate interests and elect climate champions who will fight for us in Congress and at every level of government. We must fight to prevent the fossil fuel provisions from harming frontline communities. And we must ensure that the investments promised in this bill are delivered and implemented equitably at the state and local level. We’re up against a lot, and it will take all of us showing up again and again to demand more.
I hope that all of us can take a moment to pause and reflect, and to celebrate what we’ve won. Then, let’s get back out there and keep fighting for the future we all deserve — together.