Schumer has also agreed to support legislation that will make it easier to approve green energy as well as fossil fuels projects, such as the Mountain Valley Pipeline that Manchin desperately wants.
It's no surprise then that the package was reportedly pushed and subsequently lauded by a diverse coalition of capital that includes Bill Gates and Exxon Mobil executives.
So, the IRA is a very dirty and risky trade-off, but one that Democrats will probably take.
This ostensibly 'moderate' approach of working alongside the fossil industry and even incentivizing production is radically destructive. It is in direct opposition to a recent report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which states that we need "immediate and deep emissions reductions" to keep global warming to 1.5degC.
'Merica loves its cars
In typical American fashion, the IRA bill is also into cars. Big ones. It includes billions of dollars worth of rebates for electric vehicles--$7,500 tax credit for a new purchase and $4,000 for used--and incentives for companies to manufacture and source vehicles, batteries and minerals in the US or in a country with a US free-trade agreement.
As Jael Holzman outlines in E&E News, which covers energy and environmental policy, this requirement will probably create major barriers to accessing the credit. "Minerals required to make market-ready EV batteries -- lithium, cobalt, graphite and nickel -- are primarily mined, refined and processed in China and Russia or in less adversarial nations like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia that aren't parties to US free trade agreements," she points out.
The bill even incentivizes the purchasing of larger electric vehicles such as trucks and SUVs, which are, as Aaron Gordon notes in Vice, "incredibly energy intensive".
Notably, there is no mention or support for other modes of transport such as trains, electric bikes or even walking. So much for investing in the transition of urban and public spaces to be more green and enjoyable. The IRA bill is classic Americanah, but with a touch of green.
The proposed package has a paltry $1bn for energy and water efficiency in public housing. The communities most impacted by the climate crisis, the housing crisis and the cost of living crisis are abandoned once more at a time when Democrats are hemorrhaging working class support.
How about the rest of the world?
It's striking but not surprising that the US can annually approve, with bipartisan support, nearly $800bn in military spending, but not a climate finance plan for the most climate-vulnerable countries.
The US is responsible for the largest share of historical greenhouse gas emissions but Congress only approved $1bn in climate finance in this year's spending bill. (Biden pledged to increase this to an annual $11.4bn by 2024 but this requires congressional approval.) The IRA is silent on global climate finance.
But it's not just absence. The US Federal Reserve's recent interest rate hike to combat inflation at home is exacerbating the global debt crisis in developing countries. This is making it even more difficult for those least responsible for and most directly impacted by the climate crisis to adapt to our rapidly warming planet.
But given the current composition and corruption of the US political system, the dire state of the planet, and the many many defeats of climate and social legislation, many progressives would have taken any serious climate investment. It is certainly true that this is the largest investment in renewable energy in US history, but that's really not saying much.
Next time let's hope it's far bolder, just, global--and finally pisses off the fossil fuel industry.
