The legislation promises to improve children’s health by replacing old, polluting school buses with cleaner vehicles and by cutting air and climate pollution.
You might not be able to tell from their names, but the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are the most ambitious environmental laws in U.S. history — and already, they’re improving people’s lives.
These two pieces of groundbreaking legislation are tackling a broad range of issues including pollution, climate change, the transition to clean energy and the destruction caused by extreme weather and wildfires.
5 facts to know about the Inflation Reduction Act
Signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act is bringing affordable solar and wind energy onto the U.S. power grid.
It’s also cutting air pollution, lowering the cost of electric vehicles and creating good-paying clean energy and EV manufacturing jobs.
1. How is the Inflation Reduction Act addressing pollution and its health impacts?
The law is reducing both climate pollution and local air pollution — which can lead to significant health benefits, such as fewer breathing and heart problems — through clean energy investments and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
2. How is it supporting clean energy job creation?
Companies have announced more than 300,000 new clean energy jobs, and there could be millions more. These family-sustaining jobs include electricians, mechanics and construction workers, among many others.
3. How is it moving consumers toward clean energy?
Households can receive tax credits for installing heat pumps for heating and cooling, rooftop solar with storage for power, and other energy-efficient home improvements. This lowers the cost of transitioning to clean energy.
4. What’s in it for rural and low-income communities?
The law provides incentives for clean energy investments in low-income and historically fossil fuel-dependent communities. This includes paying people directly who have lower incomes rather than requiring them to claim tax credits, which makes clean energy more accessible and affordable for everyone.
5. How is it helping communities prepare for extreme weather?
The law is funding development of a coordinated national strategy to address the dangers of extreme heat, and it provides up to $1 billion in grants to give urban communities more protection from such dangers.
5 facts to know about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021. It promotes healthy and sustainable communities through funding for clean electric buses, electric vehicle charging stations, lead pipe replacement, community resilience against natural disasters and so much more.
1. How does the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law improve the air we breathe?
It has funded putting nearly 3,000 low-and zero-emission transit buses — and over 5,000 clean school buses — on the road in 600 communities across the country, prioritizing communities that need them the most. This will slash the amount of polluted air we breathe.
2. How is it cleaning up pollution in our communities?
The law has already gotten nearly 8,000 leaky, abandoned oil and gas wells plugged, and funds the cleanup of toxic pollution — such as lead, arsenic and heavy metals — at industrial and other polluted sites. This will help reduce health risks and restore economic vitality in the affected communities.
3. How is it making electricity cleaner and more affordable?
It funded the largest single investment in electrical grid infrastructure in U.S. history, providing funding to over 200 states, tribes and territories. It has also launched over 60 projects to improve the reliability of the U.S. electric grid, to deliver cleaner, more affordable electricity.
4. How is the law helping businesses tackle climate change?
It has delivered funding for over 450 port and waterway projects to strengthen supply chains, speed up the movement of goods, lower costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
5. How is it making drinking water safer for everyone?
The law has funded the replacement of up to 1.7 million toxic lead pipes and will reduce exposure to harmful contaminants in drinking water. Nearly half of these funds will go to the most affected communities.
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