September 2022 News–Inflation Reduction Act

In August 2022, the U.S. administration and congress passed a historic legislative package, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) or known as the first climate bill. The Biden Administration through this IRA has aimed to achieve a net zero emission* by reducing GHG emissions into two stages: 1) at least a 50% reduction from the 2005 level by 2030, and 2) the remaining 50% reduction by 2050.  The latter presumably will be even more difficult.

The IRA will provide incentives to move toward cleaner and greener energy. For instance, it will provide R&D funds for large-scale generators with low-carbon fuel such as nuclear, hydrogen, and carbon sequestering technologies.  It will change a wide range of tax laws that provide production and investment tax credits to renewables and “technology neutral” projects, including wind, solar, geothermal, and hydro power as well as manufactures that produce and sell domestic solar, wind components, and certain minerals.  The IRA combined with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will provide more than $430 billion investment to modernize the U.S. electricity system.

On October 5, 2022, Dr. Broehm will give a virtual talk at UWM’s Master Chats on “Evolution of Power Markets to Achieve Net Zero Emission.”  This event sponsored by the UWM Alumni Association.

*Net zero emission refers to a level of emission reduction when compared to the baseline, which is the 2005 GHG emission level. The 2005 emission level is about 6.6 billion tons.  In 2021, the GHG level is about 5.5 billion tons.