With a key bill set to pass next week, the United States has moved one step closer to passing Democrats’ plan to combat climate change. The Inflation Reduction Act is a package that includes $369 billion (£305 billion) for climate action. By 2030, the legislation is expected to contribute to a 40% reduction in US carbon emissions. On Sunday, the Senate approved the bill. It might be approved on Friday in the Democratic-majority House.
Republicans have stated that they will work to slow down or stop the bill’s passage, which also includes $64 billion for health care. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden predicted that the proposal would “give public service a good name” before the vote. However, Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said that the law was out of date because it accomplishes nothing to “put criminals in jail” or to cut prices for working people. The proposal would represent the US’s largest-ever investment in clean energy. It is a more condensed version of a much bigger proposal that many Democrats had hoped to pass last year. After reaching compromises with two important Democratic holdouts, Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Congress discussed a new version on Saturday. The earlier law, according to Mr. Manchin, might have made inflation worse.
Tax incentives for the development of clean energy are included in the bill’s industry measures, which will assist with the hefty initial expenditures. To advance renewable technologies, a new $27 billion “clean energy technological accelerator” will be established. Some households, meanwhile, may qualify for tax credits of up to $7,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle and $4,000 for a secondhand vehicle. Additionally, $60 billion will be distributed to areas that have been most negatively impacted by pollution from fossil fuels.
The bill has been dubbed “historic” by President Joe Biden, who also promised to bring the US back to the forefront of global climate action. He promised to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030 in April of last year. He promised $2.2 billion last month to support the construction of infrastructure that can survive severe weather and natural calamities. In recent years, terrible flooding and wildfires have affected the US. The likelihood of hot, dry weather, which is prone to start wildfires, is increasing due to climate change.
Since the start of the industrial age, the world has already warmed by around 1.1C, and temperatures will continue to rise unless governments drastically reduce emissions.
