The US House of Representatives on Friday passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and now the bill, which includes historic climate change investments, moves to US president Joe Biden to be signed into law.
The legislation, which was passed by the Senate a week ago, provides for USD 369 billion (EUR 359bn) in energy security and climate change investments. Its advancement was again welcomed by clean energy groups.
Gregory Wetstone, president and chief executive of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), said: “For more than a century, our tax code has been weighted to promote fossil fuels, but now we’re just a presidential signature away from a level playing field that will unleash dramatic clean energy growth. We cannot say that this bill alone will achieve our climate goals, but for the first time, it puts us on the path.”
According to the American Clean Power Association (ACP), the “IRA provides unprecedented multi-year policy certainty for clean energy.”
ACP chief executive Heather Zichal said that in addition to marking the biggest investment in domestic clean energy, passage of the bill “also marks the point in time when the US decided to: get serious about climate change; invest in innovation and manufacturing; create hundreds of thousands of new jobs; and ensure that America takes the back seat to no one in the race to deploy clean energy.”
“In the face of a global energy crisis and rising inflation, the measures in this bill will strengthen America’s energy security by boosting production here at home, all while lowering prices for families through investment in historic levels of low-cost, reliable clean energy,” commented Abigail Ross Hopper, president and chief executive of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
The bill includes incentives to consumers to purchase energy efficient and electric appliances, clean vehicles and rooftop solar, and invest in energy efficiency. It also includes more than USD 60 billion to support clean energy manufacturing in the US.
The legislation further provides for measures to decarbonise the economy, including tax credits for clean sources of electricity and energy storage, tax credits and grants for clean fuels and clean commercial vehicles, grants and tax credits to reduce emissions from industrial manufacturing processes, and more.
(USD 1 = EUR 0.972)
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Joe Biden. Author: Gage Skidmore. License: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
