Congress passes historic climate legislation

WASHINGTON — Today the U.S. House of Representatives followed action by the Senate earlier this week in passing the most significant and impactful legislation in U.S. history to address climate change and promote clean energy investments, with the potential to lower greenhouse gas emissions nationwide by 40% by 2030.

The passing of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provides immediate action to combat climate change, with a more than $350 billion package that includes funding for:

• Clean energy tax credits, making it cheaper than ever to deploy wind and solar power generation.
• Electric vehicles and electric vehicles infrastructure, including tax credits for both new and used vehicle purchases.
• Environmental justice, including expanded funding for clean energy in lower wealth communities and to address transportation inequities.
• In addition, the Act ends the freeze on offshore wind leasing in the Southeast, opening our region up to new wind power.

In response, Nat Mund, SELC’s Director of Federal Affairs, issued the following statement:

“We applaud the House and Senate for taking bold and necessary action to pass this historic legislation, which is far from flawless but overall represents a promising and necessary step forward. This bill lays the foundation for Southern communities and individuals alike to take tangible and feasible steps to address the impacts of climate change, all while boosting local economies and advancing us toward cleaner, more affordable energy options. We look forward to moving these policies into practice to cut carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency commitments, and open access to clean energy across the board, and we’ll be ready to fight anything resulting from this that could harm Southern communities.”