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President Biden is expected to sign the Inflation Reduction Act into law today in a ceremony at the White House, locking in $369 billion in climate-related spending. According to a statement from the White House, the historic legislation will "combat the climate crisis, reduce the deficit, and finally ask the largest corporations to pay their fair share."
The House voted on the final text of the bill last Friday before embarking on their August congressional recess. The president intends to host a larger event to celebrate the enactment of the bill at the White House on September 6th when lawmakers are back in town.
Members of the president's cabinet will travel to 23 states over the coming weeks to tout the landmark bill's content, starting with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's visit to central California this Wednesday to highlight the drought resilience and the climate provisions of the bill, while Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will visit Colorado for a discussion on agriculture the same day.
While the bill represents the largest investment made by the United States to combat climate change, it also mandates oil and gas lease sales on public lands and waters, further underscoring the need for the Interior Department to act quickly to implement the law in a way that provides maximum protection to threatened landscapes and species across the West.
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Despite the obvious urgency of the situation, the last sixty-two days produced exactly nothing in terms of meaningful collective action to help forestall the looming crisis. The unreasonable expectations of water users, including the prices and drought profiteering proposals, only further divide common goals and interests. Through our collective inaction, the federal government, the basin states and every water user on the Colorado River is complicit in allowing the situation to reach this point."
