Full Title: The Most Important Clean Energy Policy You’ve Never Heard About
Author(s): Christian Fong, Jeremy Richardson, Ben Serrurier, David Posner, Uday Varadarajan
Publisher(s): Rocky Mountain Institute
Publication Date: September 13, 2022
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) represents the largest single action taken to date by the United States to address the climate crisis. Recent analysis by the Department of Energy (DOE) suggests that the tax and financial mechanisms put in place by the bill will help the US get roughly 80 percent of the way to achieving its goal of 50 percent emissions reduction by 2030. US households will see $5 billion in electricity savings by the end of 2024 due to the clean electricity tax incentives in the IRA alone, according to RMI estimates. Further, the majority of those emissions reductions are expected to be from the transition to a cleaner grid resulting from the long-term extension of clean energy tax incentives.
However, the attractive long-term economics of clean energy are not sufficient to achieve these outcomes on their own. The energy transition remains hindered by significant barriers tied to the regulatory and market structure of the electric power industry. Fortunately, the IRA provides a solution through a little-known provision called the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment program (EIR).