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On Aug. 16, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which makes a nearly $369 billion investment in addressing climate change. The IRA changes the economics of the clean energy transition and requires agencies to make implementation choices that will determine the Act’s ultimate impacts on greenhouse gas emissions and communities with environmental justice (EJ) concerns. 

In our newest episode of CleanLaw, Professor Jody Freeman interviews Greg Dotson, chief counsel for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and a key architect of the IRA. They discuss the IRA’s potential ramifications for clean energy development and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. 

In addition, EELP staff published three blog posts on the IRA: 

• In our first blog post, EELP staff examine key climate and EJ provisions of the IRA and discuss how they might impact upcoming EPA rulemakings. 
• In our second post, EELP Staff Attorney Hannah Perls analyzes the Act’s EJ language, criteria, and definitions that will determine how these funds reach intended beneficiaries. 
  • For a table summarizing the IRA’s EJ provisions, click here.
• In our third blog post, EELP Staff Attorney Hannah Oakes and EELP Legal Fellow Abby Husselbee evaluate the Act’s offshore federal energy provisions’ implications by analyzing regulatory requirements and historical leasing trends to identify the upcoming decisions that will determine the Act’s offshore energy impacts.

We will continue tracking the IRA’s implications for federal regulations in the coming months. 

Also this month, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, which includes the Hopi, Navajo (Diné), Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute, and Zuni Tribes, released the first-ever collaborative land management plan for Bears Ears National Monument. In the plan, the Tribes lay out key goals of collaborative management with the federal government, including integrating Indigenous knowledge and Native ways of knowing and giving that knowledge the same consideration as Western scientific understandings. 

Additionally,  the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted a new rule–Advanced Clean Cars II–that would phase out new gas-powered vehicle sales by 2035. The rule will be submitted to EPA for review and, after the rule is finalized, additional states are expected to follow. 

Lastly, we would like to thank our research assistant, Michaela Morris (‘24), for her valuable contributions to the regulatory and EJ trackers this summer. Thank you, Michaela!

Other rules we've recently updated in our Regulatory Tracker

• Paris Climate Agreement 
• Financial Regulation, Climate Change, and Climate-related Risk Disclosure
• Clean Car Rules—Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards/Greenhouse Gas Standards 
• National Monuments
• Coal Ash Rule
• EPA VOC and Methane Standards 
• New Source Review
• Implementation of the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards
• National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter and Ozone
• Regulating Greenhouse Gases from Existing Power Plants–the Clean Power Plan and Affordable Clean Energy Rules  
• GHG New Source Performance Standards for Power Plants
• Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - Oil and Gas Development  
• Oil and Gas Development in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve
• Enbridge Line 3 Replacement and Expansion
• Enbridge Line 5 and the Great Lakes Tunnel Project
• Federal Onshore and Offshore Oil and Gas Leasing Pause and Review 
• Regional Haze

 
Other pages we’ve updated in our Federal Environmental Justice Tracker 

• Justice40 Initiative (EJ Scorecard)
• EPA (Public Participation, Funding, Rulemaking, Title VI and ECRCO)
• Dept. of the Interior (Public Participation, Restoring Land & Water Rights, Funding)
• Dept. of Energy (Public Participation)
• Dept. of Transportation (Funding)
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (Public Participation, Disaster Preparedness)
• Other Agencies (Commerce, EEOC, HHS, HUD, USDA)
• White House (CEQ)

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