Passing IRA was half the battle, now the real work begins

Yesterday, we toasted the “biggest step forward on climate ever.” Today, the Biden administration starts the difficult task of ensuring that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)’s historic investment in green energy benefits our nation’s hardest-hit communities — lest it exacerbate existing disparities.

Now that he has signed the IRA into law, President Biden is switching focus to its implementation, which history shows can either enhance our nation’s prosperity or widen its gulfs of inequity. For example, the IRA includes a commitment to complete a controversial pipeline carrying gas to West Virginia. If constructed without further analysis of its impacts through an environmental justice lens, this project will directly harm the health of low-income and majority-African-American residents of the Banister District in Pittsylvania County, Va., who already suffer from air pollution caused by previously-built pipeline facilities in the area.

There is much that federal, state, and local governments can do to ensure the IRA’s $369 billion in climate-related grants, tax credits and other subsidies actually help such disparately-impacted communities, rather than making it harder for them to breathe. Chief among these is putting Biden’s Justice40 Initiative (J40) into action.

The Justice40 Initiative requires at least 40 percent of the overall benefits from federal investment in climate and clean energy go to disadvantaged communities, which is critical for ensuring that the disproportionate, disparate and cumulative impacts of pollution and climate change do not continue to fall on low-income communities and communities of color. If applied to all IRA-funded programs, it could clean up our country’s most polluted places, create jobs where most needed, and fuel innovation in our highest-opportunity communities.

The Biden administration has not yet clarified that the J40 requirement applies to each and every climate funding program in both the recent Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the IRA. It should do so, immediately.

For example, the IRA includes $27 billion for federal green banks, which use innovative financing techniques in partnership with the private sector to accelerate the deployment of clean energy technologies. Communities disproportionately harmed by climate change who need protection from sea level rise could benefit from green banks to fund climate resilience projects, like building up levees in Louisiana. However, under-resourced local governments are unlikely to know what a green bank is, how a green bank could improve their community, or how to engage with one to receive federal dollars. The federal government should provide additional implementation guidance to help ensure that at least 40 percent of the benefit of new green banks goes to these underserved communities.

In addition to clarifying the universal application of J40, federal agencies should issue guidance to help states and local governments define the disadvantaged communities that are eligible for funds to ensure that climate investments are going to where they are needed the most. The EPA’s recent guidance in the water infrastructure context provides a template that other federal agencies could use to help states identify and engage with disadvantaged communities. 

Further, both the BIL and the IRA should provide low-income communities impacted by climate change with significant technical assistance to secure federal funding for new climate change and climate resilience projects. Many underserved communities do not have staff to apply for, obtain, and implement federal environmental grants; they will need to hire project managers, recruit community liaisons, and work with nonprofits with technical expertise to secure federal funding.

For example, the IRA offers $15 billion in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to deploy projects that will reduce emissions, like rooftop and community solar, in low-income and disadvantaged communities. However, many such communities do not have the human resources to compete for such grants without technical assistance from nonprofits. Money must be allocated to front-line organizations to help community members understand what grants are available, help them apply, and support them in establishing a sustainable workforce that can put these federal dollars to work.

Last, but not least, the federal government cannot implement such a colossal piece of legislation alone. States must work in partnership to: 1) identify disadvantaged communities in their midst, 2) provide training and workforce development on securing and implementing climate change projects, and 3) provide local community liaisons that will meaningfully engage the community and prioritize projects that will mitigate climate change impacts in their own backyards.

There is no doubt the IRA has the potential to vastly improve American climate policy. Now, it is up to all of us to ensure it also bolsters our nation’s equity. What we do now, and who we include in decision-making, will determine whether this historic law once again sacrifices disadvantaged communities who have been left behind for decades, or collectively powers a just transition to a clean and equitable economy. Let’s get to work. 

Jillian Blanchard is the director of the climate change program at Lawyers for Good Government and a nationally recognized energy and natural resources attorney.