Issue: Climate Policy

More education about the Inflation Reduction Act is needed in order to bolster public support for it. New polling by the New York Times and Siena finds that voters are split roughly evenly on the Inflation Reduction Act when they aren’t provided with any details about it (37% support / 32% oppose), while new polling by Navigator finds that voters support the bill by an overwhelming margin after reading a brief description of its major provisions (64% support / 26% oppose).

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will invest $40 billion total, including $27 billion in direct spending, towards environmental justice communities and low-income residents—despite supporters claiming that the amount is $60 billion. Just Solutions Collective performed its own section-by-section analysis of the IRA’s text, adding up appropriations and other tailored spending to produce its own calculation. In total, the IRA includes $228 billion in appropriations and an additional $324 billion in tax expenditures. Direct appropriations in the IRA for environment, climate, and energy total $145 billion. This is dwarfed by the $270 billion provided in energy-related tax expenditures, through a variety of tax credits intended to incentivize primarily the private sector to invest in different aspects of the alternative energy economy: from mining companies extracting lithium to factories manufacturing inverters to refineries making biomass-based jet fuel to utilities installing solar arrays.