The Rollout of America’s New Climate Law Is a Story Bonanza
By Covering Climate Now, journalists
The Rollout of America’s New Climate Law Is a Story Bonanza
“The climate crisis doesn't care if your state is red or blue. It is an existential threat,” President Joe Biden said on Tuesday as he used his State of the Union address to tout the Inflation Reduction Act. Biden teased Republican lawmakers for asking his administration to fund clean energy projects in their districts even though they had voted against the IRA, which includes an estimated $369 billion in incentives to cut heat-trapping emissions by as much as 40% by 2030. The president also criticized oil companies for making record profits during Russia’s war on Ukraine, though he added that the US is “still going to need oil and gas for a while.”
Biden’s praise for the IRA might have been lost on most Americans, though, because 47% of all registered voters have never heard of the new law, according to a December poll by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Despite ample press coverage last August when Biden signed the IRA, the poll found that only 13% of registered voters had heard "a lot" about the most ambitious climate law ever enacted in the US.
For journalists, implementation of the IRA offers a bonanza of story opportunities. Media coverage can explain what the IRA aims to achieve and how that connects to the larger climate emergency. It can hold the law’s promises to account while helping audiences understand how federal climate action can affect their daily lives and local economies. Will the IRA in fact create millions of clean energy jobs, as promised? Will 40% of the funding actually be directed to historically disadvantaged communities? And how can ordinary Americans take advantage of the law’s abundant tax credits and other incentives?
This is a national story with many local angles. The Washington Post and The New York Timeshave published explainers and consumer guides on how to access IRA funding. Bloomberg reported this week that more than 100,000 new green jobs have been created in 31 states since the IRA passed six months ago, according to data from the nonprofit Climate Power. (Climate Power has tracked over 90 individual projects so far, providing journalists with a helpful tool for finding projects to cover.) Meanwhile, WE-ACT and other environmental justice groups are working to make sure disadvantaged communities and their elected officials know how to access IRA funding.
The coming months — and years — will test whether the IRA actually delivers the massive emissions reductions that its proponents say are possible. The implicit strategy is that the IRA’s subsidies will lower clean energy prices enough that fossil fuels will no longer be competitive. It’s going to be quite a drama. CCNow will be offering a press briefing and other guidance to help journalists cover this unfolding story, so stay tuned.
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