Celebrating Two Years of the Historic Inflation Reduction Act

Two years ago today, President Biden signed into law the most significant investment in climate action and clean energy in our nation’s history — the Inflation Reduction Act.

Scientists around the world have warned us for years that time is running out to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. And in Delaware, we’re especially aware of the effects of the climate crisis — from rising sea levels and intensifying storms to scorching heat waves. Fortunately, the Inflation Reduction Act is creating a brighter future for Delaware, for our nation and for our planet.

This historic law is lowering energy costs for families, reducing planet-warming emissions and cleaning up the air we breathe, all while creating good-paying jobs — a whole lot of jobs! That’s what I call a win-win-win.

In fact, clean energy companies and manufacturers have announced more than 330,000 new good-paying jobs across America since President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law.

As Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, I’m especially proud of the critical climate and clean air investments that I worked to secure in this law, like:

• The Methane Emissions Reduction Program to rein in methane pollution — a super pollutant that’s over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
• Programs like the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants Program which are already investing tens of billions of dollars into projects across our nation to address legacy pollution, cut greenhouse gas emissions and build America’s clean energy future.

But it doesn’t stop there! Two years on and the Inflation Reduction Act continues to deliver for working families and seniors in Delaware and all across our nation.

Thanks to this transformative law, Medicare is helping seniors save thousands of dollars on their prescription medications, including insulin, which is now capped at $35 a month. And with new authorities granted to Medicare, the agency can now negotiate the cost of prescription medications directly with the manufacturers, further reducing costs for our nation’s seniors.

The Inflation Reduction Act has also made critical investments in the IRS to modernize the agency, improve customer service and ensure that all Americans are paying their fair share in taxes.

In only two years, we’ve made historic progress to create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs, lower healthcare costs, modernize our government agencies and protect our one and only planet — thanks in no small part to the Inflation Reduction Act.

I’ll close with this: someday, our children and our grandchildren will inherit the Earth we leave behind. I hope we can leave for them a planet to grow up and grow old on. And today, the Inflation Reduction Act is helping to make that possible.

Sincerely,

Tom Carper