The passage of the weirdly named Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 last August marks the United States’ first significant attempt to address the climate crisis in a meaningful way. The bill is huge and includes Medicare prescription price reform and an extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidy in addition to the environmental provisions. The bill is paid for in part by a 15% minimum corporate tax for large corporations, an excise on stock buybacks, and additional funding for the IRS to catch tax cheats.
An NPR article lists the following programs for consumers:
• $9 billion in home energy rebate programs to help people electrify their home appliances and for energy-efficient retrofits, with a focus on low-income consumers
• 10 years of consumer tax credits to make heat pumps, rooftop solar, electric HVAC and water heaters more affordable, which make homes more energy efficient
• $4,000 in consumer tax credits for lower- and middle-income individuals who buy used electric vehicles, and up to $7,500 tax credits for new EVs
• $1 billion grant program to make affordable housing more energy efficient
The same NPR article lists the following programs for manufacturers:
• Production tax credits to help U.S. manufacturers accelerate production of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and process key minerals
• $10 billion investment tax credit for new manufacturing facilities that make clean tech like EVs, wind turbines and solar panels
• $500 million to use the Defense Production Act to speed manufacturing of things like heat pumps, as well as processing critical minerals
• $2 billion in grants to help automaker facilities transition to clean vehicle production
• Up to $20 billion in loans to construct new manufacturing facilities for clean vehicles
For additional information:
See the EPA’s summary of the bill.
See this article from ArchDaily for responses to the IRA from various sources in the design and building industry.