Reconciliation Rollercoaster Update - Inflation Reduction Act

Late Breaking News! - Sinema has agreed to move forward. Read on for other info.

Hi folks,

It’s been a long time since I last wrote a rollercoaster update. I will not bother to recap all that has happened and just assume y’all have been paying attention. If you don’t have much time, all you need to know is reconciliation is back, it’s called the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and it includes historic levels of climate investment. That means it’s time for CCLers to mobilize people to call Democrats in Congress to pass this bill.

Here’s some more info to help keep us all up to speed and coordinated:

Latest Timeline: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he plans to bring this to the Senate floor on Saturday. After that they will have 20 hours of debate, then the vote-o-rama, and then they can pass the bill with a simple majority vote. So, the time to generate calls and emails to Congress is right now.

The Byrd Bath: The climate provisions are still being reviewed by the Senate Parliamentarian to make sure they comply with the rules for reconciliation (aka the Byrd bath). Rumor has it the methane fee is good to go. Unclear on the fossil fuel leasing requirements and some of the domestic sourcing requirements for electric vehicle subsidies. If either of those get stripped, it’s unclear if that would affect any Senator’s, specifically Manchin’s, support for the bill. They could promise to add those to a later bill through regular order.

Kyrsten Sinema: The Senator from Arizona has yet to weigh in publicly on the bill but some news is trickling out about what she may be pushing for in terms of changes. The suggested changes seem minor to me, but it’s always hard to tell what may cause Manchin or others to withdraw their support. Schumer announcing a plan to move ahead on Saturday implies that he is confident he can get everyone on board, or at least that scheduling floor time will put pressure on them to do so.

If you want to help generate calls to Kyrsten Sinema, you can join this CCL phone bank on Thursday evening or this phone bank on Friday from Chesapeake Climate Action Network. We’ll be calling CCLers in Arizona, prompting them to call Sen. Sinema.

Learn more about the bill: If you want to know more about the bill check out Dana Nuccitelli’s CCU on the topic and what our research team has been posting in the Nerd Corner. Great place to ask your technical questions on the bill.

Fossil Fuel Leasing Requirements and EJ Concerns:  As most people know there are concerns about some measures in the bill that people are rightfully raising. The main one is that the bill says that before federal lands and waters can be leased for renewable energy, the government must also offer to lease lands and waters for oil and gas development. 

Some folks are primarily focused on the climate emissions from these potential leases, but people are also concerned about the environmental justice implications of these lease requirements. Even if the net GHG impacts for the bill are good, fossil fuel production can have huge impacts on local communities, often disadvantaged communities and/or communities of color. It’s important not to discount or dismiss these concerns, even if we are supporting the bill overall. Some EJ advocates are choosing to support, or at least not oppose, the bill even as they foreground their concerns with these impacts. (examples Green Latinos, GND Network, WeACT)

As far as how to engage when these concerns come up, I think it’s best to talk about the need for ongoing engagement and allyship to continue supporting environmental justice, both generally and in specific locations. I’d avoid trying to argue in terms of the bill being a “net benefit”, given the potential for that to come across as “what I perceive as benefits are more important than what you perceive as costs”. 

We should also note that some opponents of climate action are using progressive and EJ concerns to try to tank the bill. Real people do have real concerns, but don’t be deceived by this kind of stuff floating around online from dark money groups.

Permitting Reform: People are also concerned about the proposed permitting reform that is not part of the IRA but might be included in a future bill as part of the agreement with Manchin. Permitting reform is a tricky topic because many climate advocates support reform to streamline the process for building the clean energy infrastructure we need, while others are concerned that reform would take away tools being used to slow down the building of fossil fuel infrastructure and protect local communities from harm. As is often the case, the devil is in the details and we will likely end up with a compromise that is a mixed bag. Since these provisions aren’t even in the IRA itself, that leaves this as a future issue to contend with in the next few months. 

What can you do right now?:

• Get people calling Congress using our Take Action pages. 
• Get more calls to Kyrsten Sinema by joining this CCL phone bank on Thursday evening or this phone bank on Friday from Chesapeake Climate Action Network
• Educate yourself on what’s in the bill by watching Dana Nuccitelli’’s CCU on the topic.