Inflation Reduction Act
Predictions of IRA’s Success Solidify
IRA’s early impacts have been dramatic, and there’s a consensus that it will bend the US emissions curve downward.
My last blog post looked at some of the steps taken to implement the Inflation Reduction Act. Confirming initial projections when the law was passed, models now predict that IRA will significantly cut emissions by 2030. The impact by 2035 is likely to be even greater. Despite the IRA’s substantial assist to emission cuts, we …
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CONTINUE READINGIRA Implementation: The State of Play
It’s not easy to get a handle on IRA implementation, but some agencies are off to a good start.
The Inflation Reduction Act is Biden’s signature climate program. You’d think it would be easy to get an analysis of the government’s funding efforts in its first year. It’s not. This seems like an unforced error to me. In political terms, this seems like a lost opportunity to showcase the government’s achievements; it’s also a …
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CONTINUE READINGIs the Inflation Reduction Act Working?
Enacted a year ago, the climate law is boosting EVs and clean-energy manufacturing. But there’s urgent work to be done on transmission siting and connecting communities with IRA funding.
Happy birthday to the Inflation Reduction Act. It’s been nearly a year since Democratic lawmakers and the White House celebrated the passage of the biggest climate spending legislation in American history. But in many ways passage was the easy part. Exactly how the IRA continues to be implemented at the local, state, and federal level …
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CONTINUE READINGThe IRA’s Implicit Cost of Carbon
Here’s a simple way to think about a hard problem.
The social cost of carbon is important in many regulatory decisions made by the executive branch. It basically measures the benefit of cutting one ton of carbon emissions. Figuring out the cost of carbon based on an analysis of climate impacts is very tricky. However, there’s another way to think about the problem: We might …
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CONTINUE READINGWho Will Own the Clean Energy Future?
In the latest push to finance renewable energy, we have allowed private actors to make substantial claims on public resources without asking for anything in return.
This post was first published at the Law & Political Economy blog as part of their ongoing series on climate, economics, and green capitalism. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has been hailed as the most significant piece of federal climate legislation ever enacted in the United States. Although it has not had much competition on …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Energy Transition and the Working Class
Is Biden right? Can we attack climate change while uplifting the lives of workers?
In most of the world, May 1 is International Worker’s Day. It celebrates the collective struggle of workers for better wages and working conditions. That made me start thinking about the efforts that have been made to unite climate action with the interests of workers. That has been a particular emphasis of the Biden Administration …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Debt Ceiling and the Environment
GOP demands would devastate environmental protection
Kevin McCarthy sketched the outlines of his opening demand to raise the debt limit last week, and the bill has now been released. If adopted, it would have a devastating impact on environmental protection and climate action. One impact would be budgetary – repealing much of the Inflation Reduction Act while kneecapping EPA’s ability to …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy the Inflation Reduction Act Can’t Be Repealed
Republicans are trying to undermine the IRA, but there are at least 370 billion reasons why the landmark climate law will not be rolled back by a future Congress or administration.
There’s a ton of questions about the future efficacy of the Inflation Reduction Act. But whether the law will be reversed before it can get going is not one of those questions. That’s the most basic takeaway from the April 12 policy symposium convened by the UCLA Emmett Institute about the new federal laws to …
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CONTINUE READINGAdvances in State Climate Policy
Despite the distractions of a national election, there were important developments around the country.
Last year, Congress took its first big step into climate policy by passing blockbuster spending measures. Nonetheless, many states are ahead of the Feds in climate policy. There were important developments in a multitude of states. California remained a hotspot for climate action. In terms of transportation emissions, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved …
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CONTINUE READINGMethane Action in 2022: Project Climate’s Year In Review
A short summary of efforts to tackle the super pollutant.
Co-authored with Gil Damon, CLEE Methane Research Fellow. 2022 proved to be a big year for methane—the flammable gas that accounts for 30 percent of Earth’s anthropogenic warming. Methane forms when organic material decomposes in sealed spaces and is released in the agriculture, waste disposal, and energy sectors. In terms of warming, methane is a …
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