October 1, 2022
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is a landmark environmental achievement. Democratic proponents say it will put the country on track for a 40% emissions reduction by 2030. The legislation will provide as much as $369 billion for the climate struggle by imposing a minimum 15% tax on corporate revenues, allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, and enabling the Internal Revenue Service to crack down harder on tax cheats.
Key elements of the legislation (figures are approximate):
- Home energy efficiency rebates and tax credits for rooftop solar, efficiency retrofits, heat pumps, and electric appliances: $10 billion
- Clean energy (solar, wind, battery) and manufacturing (electric vehicles) and breakthrough research: $60 billion
- State and utility incentives for clean energy transition: $30 billion
- Incentives for cement, steel, and chemical manufacturing to install carbon capture technology: $6 billion
- Building a clean energy technologies manufacturing base in the United States: $6 billion
- Zero emissions vehicles for the US Postal Service: $3 billion
- Emissions reductions in environmental justice communities: $27 billion
- Electric school buses and other heavy duty public vehicles: $1 billion
- Climate-smart agricultural practices, forest conservation, coastal habitat restoration: Up to $28 billion
- Capping methane leaks at oil and gas wells and other locations, public transportation
- improvements, and pollution control measures in EJ communities: Specific figures not provided
Downsides of the legislation include that it ensures that federal lands will remain open to regular auctions for oil and gas leases and that this activity continues in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Cook Inlet.