Biden’s landmark climate and spending bill – what’s in it, and what got cut?

 

...What does it mean for Biden?

For Biden, the bill’s passage delivers a much-needed domestic win at a time when his popularity has sunk and key midterm elections loom in November.

Though the bill has been stripped of much of his original ambitious program, it remains a major achievement. Biden can now go to the polls and portray himself as a president able to get things done even in the difficult political circumstances of a deeply divided country.

Climate crisis

The bill would invest nearly $375bn over the decade in climate-fighting strategies, including investments in renewable energy production and tax rebates for consumers to buy new or used electric vehicles.

It’s broken down to include $60bn for a clean energy manufacturing tax credit and $30bn for a production tax credit for wind and solar, seen as ways to boost and support the industries that can help curb the country’s dependence on fossil fuels. The bill also gives tax credits for nuclear power and carbon capture technology that oil companies such as ExxonMobil have invested millions of dollars to advance.

The bill would impose a new fee on excess methane emissions from oil and gas drilling while giving fossil fuel companies access to more leases on federal lands and waters.

A late addition pushed by Senator Kyrsten Sinema and other Democrats in Arizona, Nevada and Colorado would designate $4bn to combat a mega-drought in the west, including conservation efforts in the Colorado river basin, on which nearly 40 million Americans rely for drinking water.

For consumers, there are tax breaks as incentives to go green. One is a 10-year consumer tax credit for renewable energy investments in wind and solar. There are tax breaks for buying electric vehicles, including a $4,000 tax credit for purchase of used electric vehicles and $7,500 for new ones.

In all, Democrats believe the strategy could put the country on a path to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030, and “would represent the single biggest climate investment in US history, by far.”.MORE