What the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would mean for climatetech

5 August 2022

If passed, the broad-reaching bill could drastically cut annual U.S. carbon emissions by 2030 and help transform U.S. energy industries.

On the Catalyst with Shayle Kann podcast this week:

The $369 billion climate and tax bill from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) caught everyone by surprise. Democrats had abandoned their climate legislation last month after Manchin, a must-have vote for Democrats, signaled his opposition to it.

But late last week Manchin and Schumer announced they had revived the deal under a new name: the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. If passed, it would be the most ambitious climate action in U.S. history.

And now with support from another key swing vote, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona), the bill is an important step closer to passage.

So what would the bill do?

In this episode, Shayle talks to Princeton professor Jesse Jenkins. Jesse leads the REPEAT Project, which analyzed the effects of the bill in a report released today. Overall, the bill would make clean energy cheaper and build up the capacity of climatetech industries in the U.S. and its allies across multiple sectors of the economy, including power, transportation, heavy industry and buildings.

Shayle and Jesse walk through the key provisions in the proposed legislation and their predicted impacts, including:

Hundreds of new gigawatts of solar and wind capacity, plus new technology-neutral tax credits to support other technologies such as advanced nuclear.
Building up a North American supply chain for electric vehicles (EVs).
Reducing the costs of EVs, sustainable aviation fuels, energy storage, hydrogen and more.
Increased energy security for medium- and low-income households, from steps such as installing heat pumps and insulation.