Dear friend,

My more than four decades in the struggle for peace and justice have taught me many important lessons, but I've found that one in particular is essential to keeping the flame burning bright year after year - celebrate the victories. Taking a moment from the ceaselessly unfolding events of history to pause and reflect on the new ground we've gained can give us the strength we need to carry on.

Which is why today I invite you to celebrate one of the biggest victories for both Congressional Democrats and the human race I've seen in my lifetime: the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act. Despite the nondescript title, the IRA is the single largest public investment in climate action and restorative justice this country has ever made. It's also a whopping 755 pages of policy language, so our Senior Research Analyst Jon Conway went through it with a fine-toothed comb to help us all understand more fully how this huge bill will impact our lives. Here are the things we're celebrating about the IRA, along with the few parts we're not so thrilled to see.

Let's start with the big picture. The Inflation Reduction Act, a Democrat-led spending bill passed by Congress with zero Republican votes and signed into law earlier this month, will activate nearly half a trillion dollars over the next decade for a wide variety of climate actions, large-scale environmental protection, restorative economic and environmental justice for marginalized Americans, modern labor standards, corporate tax updates, and long-overdue caps on the price of prescription medications like insulin. It was written by a group of nine Congressional committees (Finance; Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Energy and Natural Resources; Environment and Public Works; Homeland Security and Government Affairs; Indian Affairs; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) and pays for itself through a progressive taxation plan that increases taxes on corporations and taxpayers making over $400,000 a year - aka the "1%". The IRA also reinforces the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate carbon dioxide as an air pollutant, a critical step in tackling the climate crisis.

Importantly, labor standards promoting a healthy, thriving workforce and additional incentives (totalling $60 billion!) to improve the lives of the poorest and most underserved Americans are woven throughout the IRA. Nearly every section contains some stipulation that sets aside special funding for low-income and disadvantaged communities, and fair wages and labor apprenticeship programs are used to create a sustainable, skilled worker base. Over three billion dollars is reserved for environmental and climate justice block grants, which will help local governments, Native American tribes, and communities overcome environmental problems they face. And a new "national green bank" will be set to prioritize helping disadvantaged residents affordably make their homes and vehicles cheaper and pollution-free. This is likely one of the single largest investments in restorative justice for marginalized communities in American history, meant to explicitly address historical racist practices like redlining and discriminatory industrial pollution.

This bill is also meant to be the launching pad for new clean technologies and industries, like the blossoming offshore wind industry and new domestic clean vehicle manufacturing capabilities. Additionally, it sets aside billions of dollars to support sustainable agricultural practices and disadvantaged farmers in particular. Alongside restrictions on relying on goods and resources from "countries of concern", the IRA is poised to jump-start the United States' economic self-sufficiency in a way not seen since the New Deal. I dearly hope this can help reverse the slow decline this country has seen since we elected to rely on cheaper foreign labor rather than our own workforce.

But the IRA won't just transform American industry, it could transform your day-to-day life too. It sets aside tens of billions of dollars in funding and financing for home energy efficiency and electrification programs, has unprecedented investments in community air quality improvements, and extends and broadens tax credits and upfront payments for solar, energy storage, clean cars, car chargers, electrical upgrades, and more. These opt-in programs are intended to help every person in the country access climate-friendly technologies, which means greater comfort, convenience, and cost-savings for hundreds of millions of people. And those cost-savings will only continue to grow over time as air pollution-related medical bills drop and we accelerate the switch to running our lives and economy on low-cost renewable energy. Luckily, this bill and President Biden's commitment to having a net-zero carbon electricity sector by 2035 will likely accomplish both those things!

Which brings us to one of the major victories of this Act: it puts us on the path to break our addiction to oil and other fossil fuels, the burning of which is the primary cause of the climate crisis. Researchers have estimated the IRA alone could reduce U.S. carbon emissions 40% by 2030, finally giving us a good chance to meet our Paris Agreement goals. As the single country most responsible for our changing climate, the passage of this new law is both symbolic and a concrete commitment to taking action to right the wrongs of the past.

_{Credit: CarbonBrief}

Unfortunately, the IRA couldn't pass through our oil-soaked Congress totally unscathed. Along the way, it picked up some truly unfortunate policies: forcing every Federal land lease for new solar or wind development to first be offered up for oil and gas drilling, maintaining fossil fuel subsidies, and throwing significant amounts of money at new nuclear power plants and oil company-backed industrial carbon capture and storage. Additionally, some investments like those allocated to help environmental justice communities were significantly downsized since their original proposal in the Build Back Better bill.

However, rather than seeing these antisocial policies as a poison pill that kills the effectiveness of the whole bill, I view them as the next step in the ever-continuing struggle for justice. By collectively embracing the clean technologies the IRA is set to advance, we can eliminate the demand for new oil and gas production that is imperiling our world, and by embracing real climate solutions that don't enable the oil paradigm or create radioactive waste that will outlive our great-great-great-grandchildren, we can avoid missteps on the road to a sustainable economy.

But just as important as exercising our rights as consumers, we must also exercise our right to vote. The razor-thin margin that passed this bill proves the importance of having elected leadership that accurately represents the will of the people. Poll after poll shows the same thing; Americans want a clean, healthy, safe country with sustainable economic opportunities. I believe the IRA is a step in that direction, and I implore you to vote this November and in every election to elect climate justice champions. So let’s celebrate this historic moment together today, and tomorrow continue the struggle for a brighter future for all.

Together we rise!

Sara Nelson
Co-Founder & Executive Director

&

Jon Conway, PhD
Senior Research Analyst

In this episode of the Romero Report, join Danny Sheehan as he shares some exciting recent updates from the Institute’s different projects, including signing with a major production company to tell the story of our predecessor organization, the Christic Institute, in a new television series, submitting legal briefs on both the Indian Child Welfare Act and the ongoing crimes of the oil industry, and the passage of our transportation equity bill, SB 1230, through the California Legislature.

For this month’s Romero Reads, I wanted to share a wonderful resource written by the people at Rewiring America, a fellow nonprofit organization dedicated to making it easy for everyone to go electric in their lives. Their Electrify Everything in Your Home Guide is a step-by-step walkthrough of what clean electric technologies are available for each part of your home and how you can save money and shrink your pollution footprint by going electric. A great primer for getting a head start on the upcoming IRA home retrofit programs! -- S.N.

Our Let’s Green CA! initiative, in partnership with the Dolores Huerta Foundation, is on the cusp of passing its first piece of legislation into law! Clean car equity bill SB 1230 will streamline California’s existing clean car incentive programs into a single application and web portal and make incentive dollars available at the point of sale: a critical change for low-income customers. The bill is heading to Gov. Newsom’s desk soon: please send a message to the Governor encouraging him to sign SB 1230 and accelerate California’s equitable clean car revolution today!

As the legislative session comes to a close, Let’s Green CA! is also working in partnership with a coalition of environmental justice allies to end oil drilling in California neighborhoods by passing SB 1137. This critical bill to enact setbacks of more than a half mile in between oil drilling and vulnerable communities needs our support: take action for SB 1137 today.

Right now, conservative states and fossil fuel lawyers intend to dismantle Indigenous rights and sovereignty by overturning the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) via a majority conservative Supreme Court. Please join us in asking President Biden to take immediate action — up to and including an Executive Order — protecting Native children and sovereignty. Federal agencies must allocate funding, dedicate human resources, and empower Native nations to create tribally-run child welfare programs and maintain our right to self-determination.