U.S. Inflation Reduction Act: one year on, a summary of impressive progress in the energy transition

(Energy Post, 19 Sep 2023) The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act has been described as unprecedented in its ambition for the nation’s energy transition.

One year on from the passing of the bill in August 2022, Hannah Perkins and Adam Aston at RMI describe the progress on implementation as unprecedented too. The authors break their review down into categories: clean tech manufacturing, electrifying transport, greening buildings, decarbonising electricity, transforming industry, and finance. They explain and list the major leaps forward in each category. Multiple tools ranging through policies, funding and subsidies are being used, and public and private operators are moving quickly in response. Headlines include $278bn announced in new private clean energy investments, and 170,000 new jobs to come from announced projects. The rest of the world can look on in admiration, but also in recognition of the U.S. as an even more formidable player in the race for global leadership in clean energy technology.

“Unprecedented.” “A landmark.” “The Super Bowl of clean energy.”

Those are just a few of the superlatives that hit the airwaves when the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law on August 16, 2022.

The act’s passage came as a surprise both politically — emphasising lower energy costs helped the bill clear years of oppositional brinksmanship — and for its unprecedented scale. Toward the goal of shifting the US grid to 80 percent clean electricity and cutting climate pollution by 40 percent by 2030, the act mobilised an estimated $370 billion in federal incentives.

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Energy Post, 19 Sep 2023: U.S. Inflation Reduction Act: one year on, a summary of impressive progress in the energy transition