While the fight over the Inflation Reduction Act in Congress is “happening behind the closed doors” of the House Ways and Means Committee, local media outlets have been reporting on both the economic benefits of the legislation’s clean energy provisions and, inversely, the potential economic threats of repealing it.
Passed in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act has “spurred the highest levels of factory construction in American history, with more than 400,000 new jobs announced across the country.” But despite its success, especially in red states, it has long been a target of the GOP and President Donald Trump, who has referred to it as the “Green New Scam.”
The administration is already hobbling projects and killing jobs created by the IRA through executive orders and other agency actions, but Congress will decide whether to revoke the policy’s clean energy incentives altogether. Notably, as Politico reported:
“A growing number of House Republicans are urging the party to preserve the clean energy tax credits in Democrats’ climate law — and warning they may oppose the party’s budget bill if those incentives get axed.”
National cable news networks have done an inadequate job of covering the Inflation Reduction Act, including by failing to articulate the role it has played in transforming the manufacturing sector and the jobs it has created — leaving many Americans unfamiliar with its success or unable to recognize where the policy is at work.
With the IRA now on the chopping block, many local outlets are reporting on how it has benefited their communities and states — and what’s at stake if Trump and the GOP get their way.