As reported in August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) is the United States’ largest (and most complex) commitment to investing in climate change to date. The 725-page law provides a number of clean-energy tax credits to qualifying companies and commits $370 billion in funds aimed at lowering energy costs and building up supply chains for everything from critical minerals to efficient electric appliances.
With so much information and different tax credit programs covered in the bill, it’s no wonder it was necessary to create an official guidebook to the IRA, which is already in its second version. at 183 pages. Still, the guidebook does not simplify the law too much, given that much of the funding of the IRA gets delivered through tax credits and incentives involving a dozen federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Energy, and others.
To simplify things further, the Environmental Defense Fund recently partnered with Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law to launch a free online database for all of the many climate-change-related aspects laid out in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, in addition to providing updates on specific actions taken by federal agencies to implement those aspects.
This free and searchable database, which they’ve labeled the Inflation Reduction Act Tracker looks like this:
“The Inflation Reduction Act can transform the nation’s energy sector and slash greenhouse gas emissions, but only if it is fully implemented, and governments and private entities take full advantage of its incentives,” said Professor Michael Gerrard, founder and faculty director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. “This website will help everyone understand what assistance is available, and also help track the progress (or, we hope not, lack of progress) in implementing its provisions.”
The IRA Tracker provides users with three helpful tools: (1) a searchable database of the IRA’s provisions separated by federal agency, (2) updated tracking of records implementation efforts taken by these different agencies, and (3) up to date results of those implementation efforts.
When visitors first load the IRAtracker.org, they will find that it is organized into two primary Web pages: the IRA Database and the IRA Tracker. The database provides visitors with summaries of all the IRA’s climate-change driven provisions based on the different federal agencies. For example, clicking on the “Department of Energy” link will take visitors to the list of IRA programs the DOE is in charge of implementing. The summaries prepared outline where the DOE, and the other agencies, are required to create new grant or loan programs, create safeguards under the Clean Air Act, offer assistance, or use other measures to implement the IRA. Any organizations eligible to receive some grant funding under the IRA are also specified.
Under the IRA Tracker tab, visitors can track how these various federal agencies are implementing the IRA. As of this week, the IRAtracker.org indicates that 78 actions have already been taken by a dozen different federal agencies. More actions are expected in the future, and the tracker will be updated accordingly. Each of the tracker entries includes the date of action, the agency responsible for it, and a brief summary of the action including the IRA section under which the action was taken.
For example, the tracker indicates that the Department of Agriculture has so far taken nine separate steps to implement the climate change-related provisions of the IRA including, most recently, announcing initial steps to provide financial assistance to property owners exposed to discriminatory farm lending practices.
Other agencies also have made progress toward implementing the IRA programs they handle. For example, the EPA held a virtual listening session on the clean-heavy duty vehicle program established in section 60101 of the IRA asking participants from multiple local state and territorial governments and non-profit organizations how to prioritize funding and to ensure accountability.
You can reach the IRAtracker.org website here: IRAtracker.org and through the websites for the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and Environmental Defense Fund.