Biden and divided Congress unlikely partners in progress (Gettysburg Times op-ed)

Every environmental solution should also be an economic solution if we want it to be fully embraced and widely implemented. Every economic solution should also be environmentally sustainable if we expect to make long term use of it without wrecking the planet we live on. Sometimes we try to imagine the environment and the economy as somehow separate, but out there in the real world they are deeply entangled.

Surprisingly, a lot of what President Biden and a very divided Congress have been able to accomplish over the last three and a half years reflects this two-sided approach.

According to the World Resources Institute, a global nonprofit working to support clean energy transitions in twelve countries around the world, including the United States, “The Biden administration’s most important climate action to date was the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the most comprehensive climate legislation in U.S. history.”

Congress passed the Act in August 2022. Building on the Bipartisan Infrastructure law passed in 2021, the IRA invests hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy, electric vehicles, and the infrastructure needed to support a robust but sustainable economy. The Act has also established “a comprehensive set of clean energy incentives, mostly through decade-long tax credits for everything from electric vehicles to direct air capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide.”

And, it has also created jobs, lots of them.

According to the World Resource Institute, “The benefits of both pieces of legislation are being realized across the country. Since the IRA was adopted, the U.S. has seen a massive surge in clean energy manufacturing projects resulting in billions of dollars of investment and the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs.” The website E2, which tracks green jobs in the U.S., reports that 274 new projects in 41 different states have begun since the IRA passed, already creating more than 95,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone.

Americans can also now access consumer tax credits for electric vehicles, energy efficient appliances and other clean energy technology. Though there are restrictions on some of the credits to encourage the purchase of American-made products using American resources, many Americans have been able to make use of these credits to purchase an electric vehicle or a more efficient appliance that they might otherwise have not been able to afford.

Looking at the IRA as a whole, we might point to its positive impacts in five areas:

1. Lowering energy costs for Americans. Advocates for the law expect to continue to see lower prices at the pump and on electricity bills. Most importantly, the IRA includes incentives that will help consumers purchase energy (and money) saving technologies of all kinds.

2. Increasing energy security. Major investment in American clean energy manufacturing will lessen our dependence on China and create both new jobs and new opportunities for business in the U.S.

3. Decarbonizing the American economy. Advocates say that through tax credits and direct investments the IRA will help to reduce emissions in almost all sectors of the economy, cutting emissions from electricity production, transportation, industrial manufacturing, building construction, and agriculture.

4. Bringing new investments to disadvantaged communities. These include grants for communities most directly impacted by industrial pollution and for cleaner heavy-duty vehicles like buses and garbage trucks.

5. Supporting farmers and residents in rural areas. According to the World Resource Institute, “The bill will make historic investments to ensure that rural communities are at the forefront of climate solutions.” More than $20 billion will fund climate-smart agricultural practices, forest conservation, and tree planting.

Aside from the IRA, the President and Congress also made significant progress on other environmental issues that do not often get enough attention such as the problem of the so-called super pollutants like hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and methane. These pollutants are emitted in much smaller quantities than carbon dioxide but pound for pound trap much more heat.

In September 2022, the Senate ratified the international Kigali Amendment on reducing HFCs, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued regulations to help phase them out. On the methane front, a little later in 2022 the Biden administration produced a revised Methane Action Plan that includes about fifty specific measures—backed by $420 billion in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the IRA—to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas industry and other sources.

Despite all the political noise of recent years, President Joe Biden and a famously divided U.S. Congress have been able to get quite a few things done. Those of us who care about our planet and hope for a future for our grandchildren’s children are grateful.

Will Lane, a lifelong resident of Adams County, teaches part-time in the Environmental Studies Department at Gettysburg College, hosts the online Green Gettysburg Book Club, and has been a steering committee member of Gettysburg Democracy for America since its founding in 2005.