Inflation Reduction Act Provides Incentives to Reduce Carbon Footprint

The historic climate change legislation that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act provides significant financial incentives for individual households to reduce their carbon footprints, and a local advocacy group is pounding the streets with that message. You’re watching the Local News Network, brought to you by Happy Pappy’s Pizza and Wings and The Payroll Department. I’m Wendy Graham Settle. When President Joe Biden signed the $750-billion Inflation Reduction Act on August 16th, a local group of climate change activists jumped into action to spread the word about what it means to individual households. The Southwest Colorado chapter of the National Citizens Climate Lobby wants you to know that your household can take advantage of significant financial incentives to join the fight against climate change. Although the sweeping bill also includes provisions to lower prescription drug and healthcare costs, making the tax code fairer to middle-class families, and boost the American manufacturing industry, the Citizens Climate Lobby is calling the climate change provisions the most significant climate bill in history, and you as an individual can help.

Just to give you some perspective, the first climate scientist testified before Congress in 1988. That was 34 years ago and his name was Jim Hansen. He was from NASA. And what he did is talk about the correlation between the rising carbon in the atmosphere and connected that directly, those heat-trapping gases, to more frequent extreme weather events. So, that connection was made clear to Congress back in 1988. So, the fact that we now have the first, it’s historic, really, the first piece of legislation that addresses climate change since then.

The Inflation Reduction Act provides tax credits and subsidies for clean energy generation and storage to reduce total US greenhouse gas emissions by 40% during the next eight years. For local households, the government will provide a $7,500 tax credit when you purchase a new electric vehicle and a $4,000 tax credit if you purchase an electric vehicle that’s at least two years old.

And people have this misconception that electric vehicles, if they look at the sticker price of a brand new vehicle, yes, the price is up there. But if you take into account the tax credit, along with the very low maintenance, almost nothing, and the extended lifespan that an electric vehicle has compared to an internal combustion engine car, it really is a great deal.

The legislation also includes incentives to install solar panels on homes and businesses, to replace some gas appliances with those powered by green energy, and to replace heating and air conditioning systems with heat pumps that use the earth’s constant temperature to heat and cool your home. The bottom line, says Atkinson, is that individual households will save money as well as enter the fight against climate change and the extreme weather that it has caused, including the 20-year historic drought in the Four Corners.

This legislation really enables your average household to participate more in reducing their own carbon footprint, that they can be a part of the solution, and they have these wonderful incentives to help that happen.

To learn more details about the Inflation Reduction Act, go to whitehouse.gov and search for Inflation Reduction Act. Thank you for watching this edition of the Local News Network. I’m Wendy Graham Settle.

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