Inflation Reduction Act of 2022: Note to Self + Our Climate and Advocate Friends
Person with sign reading: Change the Politics -> Not the Climate
This past Tuesday, August 16, 2022 marked a historic win for climate and energy advocates as President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) to provide billions of dollars in clean energy development and technologies, advance decarbonization efforts in critical sectors of the economy, and create millions of new green jobs over the next decade. By no easy feat, this was the cumulative effort of millions of people advocating for climate progress and decision-makers navigating the political complexities of this effort.
But in celebration, we at Common Spark Consulting are also seeing environmental justice voices drowned out, ignored, and rebuffed for expressing warranted concern and outrage for what and who the IRA excludes. In dire efforts to pass the bill, compromises* were made – and at significant expense of environmental justice communities. These compromises involved massive handouts to the oil and gas industry to continue and expand fossil fuel extraction and production, and permitting reforms that would fast-track these processes without sufficient community input. Allowing the expansion of extractive industries will harm environmental justice communities first and foremost. Though the IRA touts $60 billion in environmental justice-focused investments, this is not nearly enough to offset past and perpetual harm. Additionally, according to a preliminary analysis by the Just Solutions Collective, we can only be confident that $47.5 billion of the environmental justice provisions would directly benefit low income families and communities of color.
The IRA also notably omits key provisions that environmental justice communities have long advocated for, such as accessible public transit powered by clean energy, and safe, secure, and comfortable affordable housing. Instead, the provisions in place predominantly benefit middle to higher income homeowners. For example, low income tenants, who represent the majority of environmental justice communities, cannot fully benefit from expanded electric vehicle and energy efficiency tax credits if they do not own homes, have access to charging infrastructure, have sufficient tax liability, or have the means to pay the upfront costs. (More information can be found in the Climate + Community Project’s analysis of the IRA.)
To Common Spark’s climate and energy advocate friends—particularly those who have committed to climate equity goals— it is our collective responsibility to listen openly about what environmental justice leaders are saying in response to the compromises made to pass the IRA. In an effort to uplift their voices, Common Spark Consulting shares below a few statement highlights from leading environmental justice organizations across the country. We encourage our friends to join us in reading these statements in their entirety.
Asian Pacific Environmental Network: “The Inflation Reduction Act includes some worthwhile investments in renewable energy and health care, but it also brings even more harm to people living alongside big polluters and further destabilizes our climate.” (Read APEN’s full statement).
Climate Justice Alliance: "After careful study of the language of the IRA, CJA concludes that the harms of the bill as it is currently written outweigh its benefits. CJA is opposing the reconciliation bill in its current form.” (Read CJA’s full statement).
Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition: “The Inflation Reduction Act expands fossil fuel leasing, funds unproven technologies, and weakens NEPA. MEJC is extremely concerned about the “Permitting Reform” side deal that would fast track polluting projects in our communities. These deals will not bring about justice or emissions reductions for Michigan or our country. It's time for all of us to get to work to protect our families from the expansion of oil and gas, and build the healthy, clean future we deserve.” (Read MEJC’s full statement).
Indigeonous Environmental Network: “The most insidious framework in the bill is the attempt by Senators Manchin and Schumer to buy off BIPOC and marginalized communities by allocating comparatively meager amounts of grants and loans as “environmental justice investments”—dangling a carrot in the face of Tribal communities to open up their lands to harmful practices like carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, nuclear, forest and agriculture offsets, and biofuel development.” (Read IEN’s full statement).
The Black Hive at The Movement for Black Lives: “Black people are not a transactional constituency for the forgetful democracy. And we demand a politic that recognizes the impact of this legislation on our daily lives, safety, and futures. Unfortunately, the Inflation Reduction Act takes us further away from building an equitable future as it denies the demand to end fossil fuels before our planet reaches the tipping point.” (Read The Black Hive’s full statement).
WE ACT for Environmental Justice: “With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, we recognize the historic investments being made to address the climate crisis and will work diligently to ensure that these funds reach communities that have been systemically disinvested by federal spending and disproportionately burdened by pollution and the impacts of climate change… However, we must be clear that the fossil fuel concessions that Senator Manchin negotiated into the bill will harm the health, livelihoods, and futures of these communities. Communities of color and areas of low income, which face the worst impacts of climate change, cannot continue to be sacrifice zones for the pollution caused by the fossil fuel industry, and fossil fuel interests cannot drive our climate policies.” (Read WE ACT’s full statement).
We must not forget that this ‘historic’ win was made possible due to the leadership of and allyship with environmental justice organizations through the decades. It would be disingenuous to our allies and climate equity commitments if our ‘wins’ do not include the people who built the movement for climate action in the first place and do not deliver benefits that serve all of our communities. If we aim to achieve climate equity, then we must listen and uplift the concerns from environmental justice communities, and act intentionally to ensure we all win – and the implementation of the IRA may serve as one critical starting point.
* Arguments have been made about the use of the word ‘compromise’ to describe the backdoor negotiations that excluded environmental justice organizations. Said statements suggest that “parties to the compromise had equal rights to engage and to affirm consent to terms,” which environmental justice organizations did not. (See statements by Dr. Kyle Powys Whyte.)
Common Spark Consulting not only works externally with our clients and partners, but we also strive to work inwardly, recognizing that we must internalize the care, thoughtfulness, and intention we hope to represent as individuals and an organization. The Thought Library is where we share our ideas and thoughts, where we are at right now, on topics and issues that we hope will spark conversation for a brighter, more inclusive energy future.
