The U.S. Senate has finally passed what may become the first comprehensive climate law in American history: the Inflation Reduction Act.
The plan contains compromises that will benefit fossil fuels, especially gas and pipeline companies.
But the bill will push the U.S. to decarbonize, with some studies estimating that the roughly $369 billion investment will reduce U.S. emissions to about 40% of their all-time high by 2030.
The legislation encourages electric vehicles, pushes industries to adopt low-carbon manufacturing and subsidizes zero-carbon electricity.
The latter could help transform the grid in Tennessee, because the bill allows public utilities — like the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public utility, and local power companies, like Nashville Electric Service — to directly monetize federal tax credits for renewables. That means renewables will be easier and cheaper for power providers.
TVA said it is already decarbonizing and that this bill won’t change their plan, which is to be “net-zero” by 2050.
“TVA’s decarbonization journey is not tied to any specific legislation or direction from the federal government, but is spelled out in our strategic intent document,” TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said in a statement.
The legislation will place pressure on TVA to decarbonize faster, however, according to Daniel Tait, a researcher at the utility watchdog group Energy and Policy Institute.
“This is a clear win for public power,” Tait said. “TVA now has no excuse not to accelerate its investments in clean energy.”
Here are some other thoughts about the bill from Twitter’s climate-verse:
Is the #InflationReductionAct enough to meet the US's Paris Target? This @rhodium_group analysis says, not quite: but it's a lot more than what we have now. So I say do it…and then do more! We'll never tackle climate if we make perfect the enemy of good. https://t.co/GWhLAVRLpN
— The Real Prof. Katharine Hayhoe (@KHayhoe) August 8, 2022
If shell is celebrating, I’m hesitating https://t.co/4JcGOLTu63
— Mary Annaïse Heglar (@MaryHeglar) August 7, 2022
The Inflation Reduction Act, aside from legislative content, is a clear distillation of the balance of forces. It reveals the obdurate power of fossil capital, nascent strength of green capital, the influence of mainstream climate advocates, and apparent exclusion of EJ movement.
— Thea Riofrancos (@triofrancos) August 7, 2022
"The pipeline was on the negotiating table, and we weren’t at that table." -Russell Chisholm @baristanomics @POWHR_Coalition
The fossil fuel $$ that bought major concessions in climate deal via @HirokoTabuchi @nytimes https://t.co/LTBEJ47kGQ
— CBD Climate (@CBD_Climate) August 8, 2022
The IRA will fuel a ton of solar deployment. That could cause a ton of land use conflicts. Or it could yield lovely and brilliant projects that reclaim devastated lands and/or supplement healthy agriculture.
Read the brilliant @DustinMulvaney on solar that spares the land. https://t.co/7z33Ac5oc7
— Daniel Aldana Cohen (@aldatweets) August 8, 2022
The new climate bill spends less than 5% of what we spend on the military on an annualized basis and includes major concessions to the fossil fuel industry. Think how fast we could halt the irreversible damage we're doing to Earth if we actually really tried.
— Peter Kalmus (@ClimateHuman) August 8, 2022
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