Sussex Energy Group at SPRU

By Roman Sidortsov

If there is ever a Hollywood film to be made about climate and energy legislation, the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will provide as good of a script as there will ever be. Typically mundane, the passing of the largest climate bill in U.S. history featured many twists and turns, ups and downs, and grand finale speeches about saving the world. The process features the transformation of a climate villain, Senator Joe Manchin, who infamously shot the text of a cap-and-trade bill in a political ad in 2010, into an unlikely climate hero who resurrected the legislation that he killed just a few weeks ago. The bill’s authors employed clever branding – the Inflation Reduction Act – to make the bill more palatable to not only climate activists but also fiscal hawks and the public concerned with rising prices. The drama had been omnipresent until the very end – just when all the hope of the Democratic Party to deliver on a President Biden’s signature campaign promise was lost; a compromise struck between the villain-turned-hero and the Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer saved the day.