While the Inflation Reduction Act concentrates on clean energy incentives that could drastically reduce overall U.S. emissions, it also buoys oil and gas interests by mandating leasing of vast areas of public lands and off the nation’s coasts.
The measure’s critics say that’s holding renewables hostage unless the fossil fuel industry gets its way. Some accuse Biden and Democrats of abandoning pledges to confront the industry.
In Louisiana’s St. James Parish, where petrochemical plants dominate the landscape, environmental justice activist Sharon Lavigne said the legislation will allow pollution from fossil fuels to keep harming her community. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Lake Charles, Louisiana blocked Biden’s order nationwide last year. A federal appeals court Wednesday struck down Doughty’s ruling, then Thursday he issued a new injunction saying lease sales can’t be stopped in the 13 states that opposed Biden’s policy.
A United Nations report before Biden took office warned that the U.S. and other nations need to sharply decrease investments in oil, gas and coal to keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times. Other experts had lower projections: The San Francisco-based climate research group Energy Innovation predicted up to 55 million tons of additional carbon dioxide annually from new leasing. Researchers from Princeton and Dartmouth said the impact could be negligible or as much as 22 million tons in the U.S., plus much more abroad.
Yet there’s uncertainty about how quickly other pieces of the bill could bring emission cuts. Wind and solar construction could run into the supply chain problems hindering many economic sectors. And technology to capture and store carbon dioxide is still being refined and is in limited use.
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