this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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You: "The Inflation Reduction Act has made huge improvements against the threat of climate change"
Me: "Nothing has improved. In fact, things have gotten significantly worse."
You: "Obviously, but that's just because the Inflation Reduction Act hasn't done anything yet!"
:-|
Which was in response to the Fukushima failure and the recognition among European countries that all their nuclear hardware was well outside its maintenance limit. So, instead of retrofitting and repairing these facilities, they shut them down and switched to imported natural gas as a short-term cheap substitute.
Ironically enough, the biggest contributor to reductions in Greenhouse emissions in Europe has been the Russia-Ukraine War. Thanks Mysterious Climate Activist for blowing up Nordstrem II. Total game changer!
So I guess, in that regard, you can give Biden credit for reducing carbon emissions. But that's got nothing to do with the IRA.
We could have stopped pollution with the IRA and it would have radically reduced the rate at which we are heating up the planet.
Instead, we implemented a policy that has resulted in increased pollution since it was implemented.
We played this game with Obama back in 2009. He promised a bunch of measures to reduce carbon emissions. He failed to take direct action as chief executive and he let Republicans kill his climate legislation when he had a 60 vote Dem majority. What middling bullshit he did pass - in the direct aftermath of a massive oil spill in the Gulf - failed to curb development of the enormous gas fields across the Southwest and Great Plains.
And now the US has grown its O&G development industry into a world leader, drastically increasing the volume of emissions globally thanks to both domestic consumption and foreign exports.
I have seen nothing to suggest the IRA isn't on the exact same trajectory.