The Climate Bill Isn't Perfect, but It's Still a Major Victory
There is still a lot to like about this package. To push more renewable energy into the market, Congress extended existing wind and solar tax credits for another 10 years. To drive consumer uptake of efficient energy technologies, Congress offered Americans inducements to install heat pumps in their homes and buy electric cars. Consumers with incomes below a certain threshold would receive a $7,500 tax credit to purchase a new electric vehicle and about $4,000 for a used one.
There are also incentives that should help to postpone the retirement of nuclear plants, which are zero-carbon sources of electricity, and to lower the cost of carbon capture technology, which power plants and industrial facilities can install to limit the amount of greenhouse gases that reach the atmosphere. Most oil and gas companies that emit above a certain level of methane across their operations must pay an escalating fee unless they reduce emissions below certain thresholds or comply with regulations the Environmental Protection Agency will soon finalize. This is the only provision that directly taxes pollution.
No doubt there were compromises. The legislation requires that certain leases for oil and gas on federal lands be offered for sale and conditions some wind and solar leases on the auctioning of oil and gas leases. Those trade-offs were necessary to attract 50 votes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/opinion/climate-inflation-reduction-act.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
