FOR MORE than half of 2022, prospects for U.S. action to tame the climate crisis seemed grim. Even as intense heat waves, deadly floods and rampaging wildfires were highlighting yet again the costs of climate inaction, legislative efforts in Congress seemed dead by midsummer. Then, whiplash. In August, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA. The name belied its history-making significance: $369 billion committed to slashing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing energy security. Notably, it's the first major U.S. environmental law since sweeping amendments to the Clean Air Act in 1990. Its also the first major U.S. law ever to focus on climate change. Most importantly, analyses by three independent research groups projected the IRA could cut U.S. planet-warming emissions by about 40 percent below 2005 levels.
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