Page 13 - Inflation-Reduction-Act-Guidebook

     

electrify Tribal homes with clean energy. It also appropriates $225 million for Tribal climate
resilience, which can include support for community driven relocation for Tribes threatened by
the impacts of climate change. Tribes are eligible for most of the clean energy tax incentives in
the law and many of the other funding programs, as described in this guidebook, and will benefit
from the President’s Justice40 Initiative.

Energy Communities: The Inflation Reduction Act provides targeted support for energy
communities, which include areas in which a coal mine or coal-fired power plant has closed or
that have been economically reliant on the extraction, processing, transport, or storage of coal,
oil, or natural gas but now face higher-than-average unemployment. These are communities that
have underpinned America’s economic growth and powered this country for decades. To help
ensure these communities are dealt into the clean energy economy, the Inflation Reduction Act’s
production and investment tax credits for clean electricity offer bonus credits for projects located
in an energy community. The law also creates a new Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment
Financing Program at the Department of Energy, which will guarantee loans to projects that
retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations—such as a
coal-fired power plant—or that enable operating energy infrastructure to reduce their greenhouse
gas emissions.

Rural America: Rural America will benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act’s investments in
energy communities, communities with environmental justice concerns, Tribes, and working
families, as described above. But the Inflation Reduction Act also makes targeted, tailored
investments in Rural America to improve electricity service in rural areas, expand access to
affordable clean energy, advance climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices, and support
agriculture-based biofuels. The law recognizes that farmers and ranchers are an essential part of
the climate solution and supports conservation projects that directly enhance soil carbon or
reduce, capture, avoid, or sequester greenhouse gases from agricultural production. The Inflation
Reduction Act also offers financial support to farmers and ranchers, including those affected by
the COVID-19 pandemic and climate-fueled natural disasters, such as the extreme drought
plaguing much of the western United States.

Throughout this guidebook, we highlight the tax provisions, grant programs, and other funding
programs that will offer transformative benefits to working families; disadvantaged, underserved,
and low-income communities; Tribes; rural areas; and other areas in need of economic
development and growth.

8 B U IL D IN G A C L E A N E N E R G Y E C O N O MY
G U ID E B O O K | J AN UARY 20 2 3 | VE RS I O N 2