Nuked The inflation reduction act is the biggest clean energy package in US history. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill into law soon. The US is within eyeshot of reaching its climate goals under the Paris accord.
The bulk of the bill’s spending goes toward building up domestic manufacturing of electric vehicles and clean energy technologies. There’s another $ 4 billion to promote drought resiliency in the Western us.
Inflation reduction act cuts greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 40 percent from peak levels this decade. That’s still short of the 50 to 52 percent cut Biden committed to under the Paris climate accord. But it would go a long way toward preventing disastrous heatwaves, wildfires, hurricanes, and other climate-driven calamities from growing even worse as global temperatures rise.
The Senate passed the reconciliation bill after dramatic and fraught negotiations with Sen. Joe Manchin over more than a year. The bill was seen as Democrats’ last chance to pass sweeping climate legislation while still holding a narrow majority in Congress.
The final bill will water down pollution-cutting provisions compared to earlier versions. It also expands tax credits for controversial carbon capture technologies backed by fossil fuel companies. Big oil uses the technology for shooting captured carbon into the ground to extract hard-to-reach reserves.
Democrats are also working on a side deal that would streamline natural gas pipeline permitting. The measures could prolong fossil fuel dependence and the pollution that comes with it.
