We Got a Historic Climate Bill, but There's Still Work to Do

IN AUGUST, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the most significant legislation ever passed by Congress to address climate change. But what happens now? After all, the days aren’t getting any cooler — a recent study by the First Street Foundation suggests that in 30 years more than 100 million Americans could experience heat index temperatures over 125 degrees Fahrenheit. In our polarized politics, there is already a great deal of confusion and obfuscation about what this historic bill will do. A related question: How will the IRA affect what people of faith do about the existential threat of climate change?

The IRA invests $369 billion over the next 10 years into tax incentives for renewable energy and electric vehicles, domestic manufacture of batteries and solar panels, and pollution reduction. The idea is to make renewable energy and electric vehicles more affordable, both to manufacture and to buy, thus encouraging more consumers to adopt them. The IRA also targets methane pollution by imposing an escalating fee on some oil and gas companies that emit too much methane in their operations and increasing royalty rates paid to the government on methane extraction from public lands. The IRA includes an unprecedented investment of $60 billion into environmental justice initiatives, including clean energy and emission reduction for low-income and disadvantaged communities, block grants for community-led projects in disadvantaged communities to “address disproportionate environmental and public health harms related to pollution and climate change,” and funding to reconnect communities divided by highways.

While the Inflation Reduction Act sets up an important set of carrots (and a few sticks, like the methane example above), there is still a great deal of uncertainty about how the law will play out in practice, and much more work will need to be done at the state, local, and national levels if we hope to stave off the most catastrophic climate change scenarios. For example, experts say if the IRA works as intended, the U.S. will emit around 40 percent less greenhouse gas in 2030 than it did in 2005. Yet the scientific consensus is that we need to reach at least a 50 percent reduction in that time. We will need to hold the Biden administration and its successors accountable for building on the IRA’s foundation with additional federal climate legislation to get us and keep us on the path to saving the planet. We must also continue advocating at the state and local levels for policies and projects that will complement and build on the IRA’s provisions. The U.S. should use the passage of the IRA to bolster its global leadership on climate and spur renewed climate commitments from other nations, particularly the other largest emitters such as China and India.

Churches and individuals can help achieve and exceed the IRA’s climate goals by taking advantage of the law’s incentives. Congregations can and should look at ways to make their houses of worship more climate-friendly by using the financial assistance available in the IRA to install solar panels, heat pumps, batteries, and other green technology. Individuals can do the same for their homes and vehicles.

By taking action together, we can work toward a world where future generations will look back at 2022 as a turning point in protecting God’s creation.