After more than a year of internal struggle, President Joe Biden’s climate agenda has overcome a significant hurdle. On Sunday, Senate Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 by decision 51-50 going the party line and seeing Vice President Kamala Harris vote favorably, report washington articles. If passed by the House of Representatives, the 755-page bill would authorize the single largest spending on fighting climate change in the nation’s history. Collectively, the act calls for spending $370 billion to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by about 40% by the end of the decade.
Among the climate change provisions most likely to affect consumers are . The Inflation Reduction Act will provide subsidies of up to $7,500 for electric SUVs, vans and vans priced under $80,000 and cars under $55,000. It will also allow people to claim up to $4,000 on the purchase of a used EV. In either case, the income ceiling would prevent those earning more than the average American from taking advantage of the law.
In addition to the electric vehicle subsidies, the $370 billion investment the bill earmarks would encourage the construction of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources. The act also calls for the creation of a $1.5 billion program that will pay companies to reduce their methane production.
With Sunday’s vote, the Inflation Reduction Act finds its way to the House of Representatives, which will return from the summer break on Friday. For much of 2021 and the first half of 2022, President Biden seemed to go nowhere due to the objections of Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. In late July, however, Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced they had come to a compromise.
In exchange for his support, the Inflation Reduction Act included a provision allowing the federal government to reinstate canceled oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Cook Inlet. While that concession upsets environmentalists, it is not expected to undo the good that the Inflation Reduction Act is already doing for the environment. According to one The bill could reduce US greenhouse gas emissions by 6.3 billion tons through 2032.
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