By Brianna Lyman
Former Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit that the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” is mainly a climate change bill.
President Joe Biden signed the roughly $750 billion “Inflation Reduction Act” in August, which allocated approximately $370 billion to combat climate change.
Gore said during a panel that one of the U.S.’ recent accomplishments is the passage of the legislation, which he argued was really all about climate.
“In my country, we passed the ‘Inflation Reduction Act,’ which is primarily a climate act, $369 billion, which will actually be much larger than that, because the heavy lifting is done by tax credits that are very long-term, some of them actually open-ended, and the early investments that have already been triggered by it give a great deal of reason — many reasons, for believing it’s going to be much larger than $369 billion,” Gore said. “So I’m very encouraged by that.”
The legislation includes several tax rebates and credits to lower energy costs for families while also increasing funds to domestic manufacturers of wind turbines, solar panels, batteries and other clean energy technologies.
Others have also acknowledged the legislation was heavily focused on everything but reducing inflation. CNN White House correspondent John Harwood said the bill was about “climate” and health policy.
The Environmental Defense Fund called the legislation the “biggest package of climate investments” in the nation’s history and noted its own efforts to lobby for the passage. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan called it the “most aggressive action in tackling the climate crisis” the U.S. has ever seen.
Brianna Lyman is a news and commentary writer with The Daily Caller.
