“We're pleased," ExxonMobil's CEO, Darren Woods, said on an earnings call last month, speaking about the Inflation Reduction Act. He called the bill, now making its way through the US Congress, “clear and consistent".
That the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed is undoubtedly good news. That something being called climate policy passed at all is thanks to the tireless work the climate movement has done to put it on the agenda. But it also reflects just how much power the fossil fuel industry has amassed. The IRA itself contains a remarkable poison pill, requiring. that 60m acres of public waters be offered up for sale each and every year to the oil and gas industry before the federal government could approve any new offshore wind development for a decade.
Then again, maybe the oil and gas CEOs have finally come around, and such sweeteners are a distraction from the real story. After decades of lobbying against climate policy perhaps they've seen the inexorable march of history towards decarbonization and decided to hitch their wagons to it. Unfortunately, we've seen this show before. Over a decade ago the likes of BP and ConocoPhillips joined the US Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of green groups and corporations that set about trying to pass climate legislation at the start of the Obama presidency. The House of Representatives went on to pass the hulking carbon pricing bill it supported, only to see it die in the Senate. The same was true this time around; the critical difference this time is that their bill passed.
Understanding what's just happened demands a longer view. For decades, oil and gas executives have worked to create a political climate wholly allergic to comprehensive climate action. Part of that has been lobbying against climate legislation, of course. But for nearly a century the same corporations have conducted an all-out attack on the ability of the US government to get big, good things done.
Climate change is ultimately a planning problem; there is no entity other than the state that can electrify the country, expand the grid, build enormous amounts of mass transit and wind down coal, oil and gas production in time to keep warming short of catastrophic levels. For allits many shortcomings, Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal sought to construct a state capable of tackling such complicated problems. The right—supercharged by fossil fuel funding—set out to destroy it, polluting our politics with the idea that efficient markets are the only reasonable answer to what troubles society. Predictably, they railed against the Green New Deal, too, which rejected that logic.
The IRA's most promising elements are a series of modest incentives to get corporations to do the right thing on climate-demanding they actually do so feels so far out of reach. This bill is seriously inadequate, featuring a cruel, casual disregard for those at home and abroad who will live with the consequences of boosting fossil fuel production as a bargaining chip for boosting clean energy. And it's almost certainly better than nothing.
That the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed is undoubtedly good news. That something being called climate policy passed at all is thanks to the tireless work the climate movement has done to put it on the agenda. But it also reflects just how much power the fossil fuel industry has amassed. The IRA itself contains a remarkable poison pill, requiring. that 60m acres of public waters be offered up for sale each and every year to the oil and gas industry before the federal government could approve any new offshore wind development for a decade.
Then again, maybe the oil and gas CEOs have finally come around, and such sweeteners are a distraction from the real story. After decades of lobbying against climate policy perhaps they've seen the inexorable march of history towards decarbonization and decided to hitch their wagons to it. Unfortunately, we've seen this show before. Over a decade ago the likes of BP and ConocoPhillips joined the US Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of green groups and corporations that set about trying to pass climate legislation at the start of the Obama presidency. The House of Representatives went on to pass the hulking carbon pricing bill it supported, only to see it die in the Senate. The same was true this time around; the critical difference this time is that their bill passed.
Understanding what's just happened demands a longer view. For decades, oil and gas executives have worked to create a political climate wholly allergic to comprehensive climate action. Part of that has been lobbying against climate legislation, of course. But for nearly a century the same corporations have conducted an all-out attack on the ability of the US government to get big, good things done.
Climate change is ultimately a planning problem; there is no entity other than the state that can electrify the country, expand the grid, build enormous amounts of mass transit and wind down coal, oil and gas production in time to keep warming short of catastrophic levels. For allits many shortcomings, Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal sought to construct a state capable of tackling such complicated problems. The right—supercharged by fossil fuel funding—set out to destroy it, polluting our politics with the idea that efficient markets are the only reasonable answer to what troubles society. Predictably, they railed against the Green New Deal, too, which rejected that logic.
The IRA's most promising elements are a series of modest incentives to get corporations to do the right thing on climate-demanding they actually do so feels so far out of reach. This bill is seriously inadequate, featuring a cruel, casual disregard for those at home and abroad who will live with the consequences of boosting fossil fuel production as a bargaining chip for boosting clean energy. And it's almost certainly better than nothing.
