Page 12 - Inflation-Reduction-Act-Guidebook

The Inflation Reduction Act’s

Commitment to Equity, Environmental

Justice, and Working Families in Clean

Energy and Climate Programs

The Inflation Reduction Act is a key pillar of President Biden’s economic and industrial strategy,
which is centered on investing in America’s workers and communities to ensure long term,
sustainable growth and prosperity. To that end, the Inflation Reduction Act is designed to ensure
that these transformative investments create good-paying union jobs to lift up the middle class
and bring tangible benefits to communities that are often overlooked and left behind, including
communities overburdened by legacy pollution.

Working Families: The Inflation Reduction Act will not only create millions of jobs—it will
create good-paying, high-quality jobs that provide a pathway to the middle class for working
families, including for workers who have been historically underrepresented in construction and
manufacturing. Many of the clean energy tax provisions offer bonus credits to projects that pay
the prevailing wage or use registered apprentices. Several provisions offer bonus credits for
projects that meet certain domestic content requirements for steel, iron, or other manufactured
products, creating an incentive to rely on America’s manufacturing base and American workers.
In addition, the Inflation Reduction Act’s historic investments in clean energy will create
tremendous opportunities for small businesses, including minority- and women-owned
businesses, to build wealth and create family-sustaining jobs.

Environmental Justice: For far too long, many communities across the United States have
borne the brunt of toxic pollution, endured underinvestment in critical infrastructure, and
suffered disproportionately from the impacts of climate change. The Inflation Reduction Act
supercharges President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which commits to delivering 40 percent of
the overall benefits of climate and clean energy investments to disadvantaged communities,
including communities with environmental justice concerns. The law provides targeted
investments to cut localized pollution from port operations, heavy duty trucks, and transportation
infrastructure—pollution sources that have led to higher incidence of asthma and other health
burdens in low-income communities and communities of color. The law directly supports
communities working to address local pollution concerns by creating a new $3 billion
environmental justice grant program for community-based organizations and their partners.

Tribes: Native communities have long suffered from underinvestment, contributing to poor
health and economic outcomes in Indian Country. The Inflation Reduction Act supplements
historic investments in the American Rescue Plan and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in Tribal
communities. The Inflation Reduction Act provides $75 million to help guarantee up to $20
billion in loans to support Tribal investment in energy-related projects and $150 million to

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