The sustainable investing industry has praised the Senate’s approval of US President Joe Biden’s climate plan as a positive step toward getting the investments needed to fight climate change.
The US Senate passed a $430 billion bill earlier this week to combat climate change, slash medication prices, and boost certain corporate taxes.
The Inflation Reduction Act, anticipated to pass the House today, includes more than $350 billion in explicit incentives to promote investment in wind and solar technologies, as well as initiatives to expedite electric car adoption and encourage energy conservation spending. Its goal is to minimize carbon emissions and encourage customers to use green energy.
The climate portions of the bill were significantly less than the $550 billion that was initially envisioned as being included in a larger $2.2 trillion bill a year ago, but they still represent the largest investment in clean energy sources in the history of the United States. They are about four times as big as the incentives in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama.
According to experts, the most important parts of the Act for long-term investors in the clean energy sector are the extension of renewable energy tax credits, a separate tax credit for energy storage, an updated tax credit policy for electric vehicles, tax credits for green hydrogen, a methane emissions reduction program for oil and gas facilities, and tax credits for manufacturers producing “critical materials” in the clean energy value chain.
