Energy Minute: Unpacking the Inflation Reduction Act’s Clean Energy Framework with Environmental Defense Fund’s Michael Panfil

The Inflation Regulation Act, the United States’ most ambitious climate legislation to date, was passed in August of 2022, delivering a range of grants, loan programs, tax incentives and a greenhouse gas reduction fund, all targeted to accelerate clean energy and technologies to mitigate climate change, including energy storage, hydrogen production and direct air capture to name a few.

In this Energy Minute, co-hosts Dana Dohse and Steven Goldman are joined by Michael Panfil, Senior Director & Lead Counsel for Climate Risk & Clean Energy at Environmental Defense Fund, to unpack the legislation and its potential to accelerate clean energy and transform our energy infrastructure, with huge potential impacts for communities and corporations alike.

Listen in for:

1. The IRA is a big opportunity for any company in the United States with climate commitments and clean energy adoption targets, because it’s designed to accelerate clean energy and energy storage deployments, and lower energy costs in the process.
2. If you are a company that has clean energy commitments, the new standalone energy storage tax credit creates new opportunities for energy storage – as a resource for firming solar or wind output to meet corporate energy procurement needs, or as standalone flexibility assets to support the overall decarbonization of electric grids businesses draw power from.
3. The IRA implementation is a golden opportunity for states to supercharge progress and clean economic growth on lower energy costs, on reductions in harmful air and climate pollution, and for significant clean energy investment for local organizations and local governments.

 

References

• The Inflation Reduction Act Tracker, a joint project of EDF and Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, compiling information about the climate change-related provisions of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA): https://iratracker.org/
• EDF blog post on how the IRA’s $369 billion in funding for clean energy breaks down: “The Inflation Reduction Act: A breakthrough for lower energy costs and climate progress”
• EDF+Business blog post: “3 big wins for businesses in the Inflation Reduction Act”