The Democratic-controlled House and Senate have passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the most significant investment in climate and energy spending in decades — totaling $369 billion over ten years. I’m more hopeful and optimistic than I’ve been in years about our ability to address the climate crisis — but not for the reasons you might think.
The IRA is a deeply flawed piece of legislation that pairs incentives for renewable energy and money for environmental justice communities (good things) with more fossil fuel leases, billions for carbon capture schemes favored by Big Oil, and a failure to mandate emissions reductions. To be blunt — it won’t meaningfully help us avert the climate crisis.
Still, I’m optimistic about its passage because of what it says about the growing power of the climate movement. The entire reason congress has been talking about climate change, and why President Biden staked his presidency on passing a climate bill, is because of the work that you and many others across the country have done to demand change. This validates our organizing strategy — people coming together and building power can compel action from our elected officials.
The passage of the IRA isn’t the end of our fight. We need to do more to get a bill passed that actually takes on the fossil fuel industry. And we need to continue to engage even more people, build stronger and more diverse coalitions, and turn out even more climate voters.
We have a chance to do this in November — to keep a Democratic congress and expand it. Join us in electing climate champions — imagine what we can do together to address the climate crisis.
With you, Food & Water Action will keep pushing for stronger measures to secure a livable future and protect our planet. The only way to truly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and halt planet warming is to end fossil fuels.
Food & Water Action and its affiliated organization, Food & Water Watch, are advocacy groups with a common mission to protect our food, water and climate.
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