The Inflation Reduction Act's rollout is bringing green jobs across the US. See the projects happening near you
Within six months of becoming law in August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act created more than 100,000 permanent green jobs across the United States.
The IRA—which aims to reduce greenhouse gases to 40% below 2005 levels by 2030—promised $370 billion in tax credits to the renewable energy industry. By January 2023, nearly 100 new projects representing a $90 billion investment in clean energy in sectors like wind, solar, and electric vehicles were in the works. More recent estimates bring the total investment up to $150 billion. By 2030, the White House estimates the act will lead to the installation of 950 million solar panels, 120,000 wind turbines, and 2,300 battery facilities.
These investments and the re-shoring of industries that have long been based overseas have also restored more than 350,000 manufacturing jobs. A recent analysis of the impact of the IRA estimates that it will create more than 9 million green jobs by the end of the decade.
The energy and climate provisions of the act appropriate approximately $11.7 billion to support new project loans. It also adds a new loan program called the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Program to help improve, repurpose, or reengage energy infrastructure.
Despite this infusion of support, however, burdensome regulations threaten the IRA from reaching its maximum potential by limiting the number of projects that can actually break ground. Roughly 80% of the bill's potential benefits will be wasted if current regulatory hurdles remain in place, according to an analysis by Bloomberg and the Washington Post. Additionally, clean energy isn't being brought online fast enough, and fossil fuel retirement may outpace new wind and solar installations.
Stacker cited data from Climate Power to look at green energy and infrastructure projects that have been announced since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
