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This Week: The Inflation Reduction Act Turns 2
Two years ago this month, President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the largest investment in clean energy and climate action in US history. Not one Republican member of Congress voted for the bill, and since then, House Republicans have tried to repeal it 42 times. Former president Donald Trump has also said that, if elected, he plans to repeal it. But a few Republicans have broken ranks: In early August, 18 House members sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson asking him to preserve industry tax credits if the party is successful in November.
In poll after poll, Americans have said that they know little to nothing about the IRA, with the most recent poll, out in April 2024, finding that 4 in 10 people say that they don’t know enough about the law’s provisions to have an opinion on them. At the same time, a July 2023 Data for Progress poll found that large numbers of Americans support provisions in the IRA when asked specifically about them, including tax credits for businesses that produce clean electricity, electric vehicles, and new clean energy technologies (69%); rebates up to $14,000 per household to improve home energy efficiency (71%); and ramping up production of American-made clean energy technologies (73%). And perhaps most significantly, support for these key IRA provisions has grown over time among all likely voters, especially Republican voters.
That support has materialized into consumer action. Twice as many Americans as projected (more than 3 million households) claimed IRA tax credits in 2023, totaling $8 billion for purchases of “solar panels, heat pumps and other climate-friendly projects,” reports The Washington Post.
Whether Americans know it or not, the IRA has also helped create more than 334,000 new green jobs and spurred $372 billion in new climate investments across the US, according to the advocacy organization Climate Power. Roughly two-thirds of IRA investments in clean energy projects have gone to red states, including a $1.1 billion solar plant in the “reddest district” in America.
Despite that, “politicians tend to think climate action is much less popular than it really is,” notes a recent Grist article. “It’s not just politicians who hold a distorted view: People systematically underestimate public support for climate policies.” Journalists have an opportunity here to tell an undertold story, about climate action and jobs.
Reporting Ideas
- Talk with voters who’ve claimed IRA tax credits and to workers who’ve gotten new jobs thanks to IRA funding. How are they planning to vote up and down the ballot this November?
- Talk with business leaders in your district or state whose industries have been impacted by IRA investments and regulations. How has it changed the way they or their industry does business? What would it mean for them if Trump returns to the White House and follows through on his pledge to dismantle the IRA?
- Ask state officials when they’ll be rolling out state rebate programs funded by the Department of Energy. These programs — funded with an additional $8.8 billion — will supplement the federal tax credits already being offered. Check out Rewiring America’s incentives calculator, which they’ll update as states roll out rebates. So far, only New York and Wisconsin have launched initiatives.
- Get congressional candidates on record about their stance on the IRA. Ask them about IRA-funded projects and job growth in their state or district and about feedback from constituents who have claimed tax credits. Ask Democrats whether they support expanding the IRA and Republicans whether they would repeal the law (in full or in part) should their party win the White House in November.
Take Inspiration
As of July 31, the Environmental Protection Agency’s New England hub had distributed $1.85 billion in IRA funds, reports WBUR. An IRA rollback probably couldn’t claw back distributed funds, but it would likely scrap environmental justice initiatives, such as the “Solar For All” grant program that funds solar projects in low-income communities.
When he was running for president, Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis rejected $349 million in IRA funds offered by the federal government for home energy rebate programs in his state. In June, DeSantis reversed course, likely in response to rising electric bills, reports WUSF.
Dalton, Ga., used to be the “carpet capital of the world,” but demand for its products waned in the wake of the 2008 housing crisis, resulting in heavy job losses. Two new solar factories, aided by an IRA provision authored by Senator Jon Ossoff, have added more than 2,000 new jobs, reinvigorating the community, reports Canary Media.
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance has claimed in his stump speeches that the IRA is a “green energy scam that’s actually shipped a lot more manufacturing jobs to China.” Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler gives that a whopping four pinocchios, writing, “The IRA was designed to foster green manufacturing jobs in the United States — and the evidence shows that it’s working.”
Spotlight Piece
More than $200 billion in federal cleantech investments made so far, according to a June Bloomberg Opinions piece. Of that, $161 billion went to districts represented by Republican House members. Nine of the top 10 most-funded districts are represented by Republicans. Play around with the interactive to see how much cleantech money went to each district and the district member’s margin of victory in 2022.
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