Everything is Different, and Everything is the Same
The new climate bill and what climate-conscious parents can do next.
I will always remember exactly where I was yesterday, when Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the first truly significant climate legislation in this country. I was driving through the mountains with my four-year-old, fresh from a mostly unlucky mushroom hunt in the Colorado forests. The final vote in the House of Representatives was heavy on my mind, as decades of Congressional inaction were finally coming to an end while I drove down those high-mountain switchbacks in the 95°F heat.
Focusing only on what’s there for climate, this bill will spend $369 billion to:
Save families money on utility bills, home upgrades, and EVs
Help disadvantaged communities by investing billions directly into areas that suffer the most from pollution and climate disasters
Help struggling families and the economy by creating millions of good-paying jobs in clean energy manufacturing
Directly address climate change by cutting US climate emissions to 40% below peak levels by 2030
…and so much more. (Want all the wonky details? Check out Evergreen Action’s breakdown.)
But there are two stories to tell about what just happened.
The first story is about everything that could have been.
I will not soon forget that 98% of the Democrats in Congress were lined up and ready to vote for a much bigger deal last year, when Build Back Better was one coal-stained Senator away from passing.
THAT deal would have included an extension of the Child Tax Credit, which lifted millions of children out of poverty while it was in effect. It would have expanded child care access, free school lunches, and affordable housing, and would’ve included more support for America’s seniors and people with disabilities. On the climate side, that version included transformational funding for a Civilian Climate Corps, a New Deal-style mobilization of good-paying jobs for climate projects.
Earlier in the process, the deal also included something that the Inflation Reduction Act mostly avoids, which is sticks (fees on utility companies that fail to meet clean energy targets) to go with all of the carrots (clean energy tax credits and rebates).
But the villain of this story, one Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, strip-mined over $1 trillion in investments—including the Civilian Climate Corps and many clean energy provisions—out of that bill. And after holding the bill hostage for months, he worked in some BIG gifts for his friends in oil and gas (think: more leases to drill in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, and no penalty “sticks” for missing clean energy targets).
These gifts help maintain the status quo of fossil fuel supremacy, where pipelines and drilling operations and refineries continue to kill the people who live near them and continue to endanger the future of all our families.
Because the fossil fuel industry still has insane levels of influence in our government, and because the institution of the Senate was built on white supremacy and continues to serve primarily to uphold it, Senator Coal Baron Joe Manchin got his way.
And so, while this is truly a course-changing package of desperately-needed investments in clean energy, targeted at communities who need it the most, it is no Green New Deal. And it doesn’t do much to directly prevent fossil fuel extraction, which science tells us must end yesterday.
And that brings us to the other story.
For decades, Indigenous, Black, Brown, and poor communities have been fighting extractive industries (like oil, gas, and coal) not just because of the climate implications, but because of the direct harm that those polluting operations cause to their families. Think about a neighborhood parked next door to an oil refinery, or the Standing Rock Sioux and the Dakota Access Pipeline.
In more recent years, young people have organized and mobilized at a monumental scale, fighting hard both here and abroad against planet-destroying fossil fuels. Young people who are literally fighting for their lives. Since 2018, they have brought the idea of a Green New Deal—a comprehensive policy framework that is rooted in justice, and which centers human wellbeing and economic equality at the core of transformative climate solutions—to the forefront of the conversation.
Almost nobody has done as much for climate awareness and political urgency as these groups have.
We would not have gotten nearly this far—to the point where we’re juicing the US economy with $369 billion that is strategically targeted to rapidly accelerate the just transition to a clean energy future—if it were not for the sacrifices and unflagging commitment of young people, BIPOC groups, frontline activists, labor organizers, and the grassroots climate movement at large.
And so, the Manchin handouts to the fossil fuel industry inside of the Inflation Reduction Act aren’t just a compromise—they’re a betrayal of everything those communities have fought for. And they’re one reason why this bill isn’t nearly enough to secure a safe, livable climate for our children and grandchildren. Put simply: we’re not going to preserve a livable climate until we stop burning fossil fuels.
That brings me back to where I was yesterday when the Inflation Reduction Act passed its final hurdle in Congress.
I was driving my car, with its internal combustion engine, through the rapidly-warming high-mountain ecosystems of Colorado, my daughter chattering away in the backseat. I was enjoying the privilege of paid time-off on the stolen land of the Ute and the Cheyenne. I was, as all of us are, living inside the same system that got us into this mess. The system that simply cannot, by its nature, sustain us through what is coming.
We are still so far from where we need to be, but I still believe that the place we are headed is beautiful and worth fighting for.
And so the battle to break the status quo, build a more just society, defeat the supremacy of the fossil fuel industry, and transform the future continues. For now, we’ve won ourselves a host of investments that will help the US finally, finally get started.
What’s next? A climate-conscious parent checklist.
Learn about what the IRA does for you. From stabilizing healthcare premiums, to lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, to cleaning up our air and reducing climate pollution, providing tax credits and discounts on a whole host of energy improvements for your home, discounting EVs, and creating good-paying jobs, the IRA has a lot in it for American families.
Join or donate to a climate group focused on fighting fossil fuels and protecting frontline communities. The US is finally in the game when it comes to confronting the climate crisis, but our work has just begun. To help put an end to fossil fuel use and lend your support to the communities who’ve been leading this fight, donate time and/or money to an environmental justice organization in your area.
I know that many of you have made phone calls and written letters in the past 18 months to encourage your elected officials to support comprehensive climate action. The willingness of parents like you to speak up, share your story, and hold our leaders to account is a big reason we’ve made it this far. So, from the bottom of my heart: thank you.
Until next time,
Jessica
PS: Editing to add this amazing breakdown of the bill and its transformative potential from Hank Green.