Inflation Reduction Act to Drive Historic Clean Energy Transition
WASHINGTON – A new compilation of government, academic, industry and other analyses provides the strongest evidence yet that the Inflation Reduction Act is poised to drive a historic transformation of the U.S. economy toward cleaner, renewable energy.
An analysis from NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is one of the nine included in this collection of the major research models examining the potential impact of the investments and tax incentives in the legislation. The paper, the first to bring together different analyses of the potential impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act, is being published in the journal Science.
“All of the analyses point in the same direction: The Inflation Reduction Act is set to drive the transition to clean energy, while saving households money and slashing carbon emissions,” said Amanda Levin, the director of policy analysis at NRDC and a co-author of the paper. “This consistency across government, industry and academic analyses is further evidence of the historic nature of this legislation.”
Together the modeled scenarios find that overall U.S. emissions could fall 43% to 48% by 2035 from the 2005 peak with the climate legislation in place, compared to 27% to 35% without it.
A shift to solar, wind and other low-carbon technologies cuts emissions from the power sector by 66% to 87% by 2035 across the models, with the power sector the key driver for overall emissions reductions. The models also find that the legislation could cut household energy costs, speed the shift to electric vehicles and help jump-start new, low-carbon technologies.
And it could speed the transition away from a reliance on coal, gas, and petroleum.
“We are already seeing the start of the end of the fossil fuel age,” Levin said. “Because of the Inflation Reduction Act, we are going to hit the accelerator on the transition to safer and cheaper clean energy.”
While there are many differences among the analyses in the overall size and composition of the changes in the power, transportation, and industrial sectors, the general trend across these independent research models is clear: the Inflation Reduction Act will help transform our energy system.
There are already important signs of success: Since it became law last year, more than 185 clean energy and electric vehicle projects have been announced in the U.S. with investments of more than $83 billion.
The climate benefits from this legislation could be profound, ranging from $44 billion to $220 billion annually by 2030, the new paper finds. This shows that the Inflation Reduction Act is, in fact, the largest climate action in the history of the U.S.
Click here to read the full paper, “Emissions and Energy Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act.”
In addition to NRDC, researchers in this project came from: Electric Power Research Institute; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Resources for the Future; Evolved Energy Research; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Princeton University; Rhodium Group; Energy Innovation; Dartmouth College; Center for Global Sustainability, University of Maryland; Binghamton University; Carbon Impact Consulting; National Energy Technology Laboratory; Stanford University; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law, and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health, and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd). Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.