President Biden signed major climate legislation into law on Tuesday. The Inflation Reduction Act includes about $375 billion to fight climate change, along with other health care and tax provisions. “This is a BFD,” President Barack Obama tweeted, a reference to then-Vice President Biden’s assessment of the passage of the Affordable Care Act over a decade ago.
The law, which passed despite the narrowest possible majority for Democrats in the Senate and in the face of unanimous GOP opposition, represents the biggest ever federal investment to address the climate crisis. Though it is not sufficient on its own to achieve the climate pollution cuts necessary to halt global warming, the law is significant not only for the actual emissions reductions it enables and for the international response it could induce. (IRA signing: Washington Post $, NPR, The Guardian, AP, New York Times $, Axios, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Teen Vogue, Canary Media, Bloomberg $, Al Jazeera, Wall Street Journal $, E&E $, The Hill, CNBC, CNN, CBS, Politico Pro $, NPR, Grist; Emissions reductions and global response: AP)