Issue: Environmental/Climate Justice

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.

Let’s be honest, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has taken the climate movement by storm. It has created opportunities for conversations about process, intersectionality, race, and class. Whether you are celebrating its passage or mourning its shortcomings, one thing I hope we all agree on is that this can be a turning point for advocates, researchers, and funders to strengthen our movement. In order to make good on the IRA’s promises and reduce its harms, the climate movement must keep organizing to make sure communities around the country are protected and included in the fights to come.