Biden struggles to convince Americans of the benefits of his “Inflation Reduction Act”

2023-08-13 07:28:00

If it had to be done over once more, he would choose another name… A year later, Joe Biden is struggling to convince Americans of the benefits of his “Inflation Reduction Act” (IRA), this pharaonic project of energy transition, industrial power and of social justice. On August 16, 2022, when the American president signed this 750 billion dollar text, the United States was in the grip of a price surge which sent the Democrat’s popularity rating to the bottom. Hence this title, the “law to reduce inflation”, for a project which aims above all to encourage, through subsidies and tax credits amounting to more than 350 billion dollars, investments in green energy.

“I regret giving it that name because it’s less regarding inflation and more regarding generating economic growth”, Joe Biden dropped Thursday during a meeting with donors in Utah (west). The day before, the 80-year-old Democrat, who will seek a second term in 2024, had inaugurated an industrial project emblematic, according to him, of this text. It is a wind turbine tower factory, located on a site that previously produced plastic tableware, and in a state, New Mexico, which is suffering the consequences of climate change through fires and extreme temperatures.

$110 billion invested in clean energy

The White House assures that some 110 billion dollars of investments in clean energies have been announced in the United States since the signing of the text, which jostled the Europeans and other allies with its stated ambition of industrial sovereignty. It is “the most significant climate and clean energy law in American history”, applauds Lori Bird, of the World Resources Institute, a non-governmental organization for the defense of the environment. The incentives provided for in the text “are designed to last a decade” and the effects will be felt “still beyond”she predicted.

According to a study by nine US research teams, the IRA is expected to reduce US emissions by 43% to 48% by 2035 and compared to 2005. This is less than the official target, which is to halve them by 2030. To achieve this, many activists argue, we must not be satisfied with “carrots” financial but also brandishing “sticks”binding regulations – which might however be shattered by the very conservative Supreme Court.

In the immediate future, Joe Biden’s concern is above all to capitalize, before the fall 2024 ballot, on what he calls “Bidenomics”. The term is meant to describe the current strength of the US economy as well as the bright prospects promised by the IRA and two other major investment laws, in technology and in infrastructure.

Americans are unfamiliar with these texts which are full of heterogeneous promises – to support quantum computing and stand up to China, build electric cars and create jobs, lower the price of insulin and democratize access to the internet… “It’s going to take time because people don’t understand that the changes that are happening are a consequence of what we’ve done”admitted the Democrat on Thursday, facing the donors.

Elected Republicans also benefit from the IRA

The Republican Party attacked, in a press release published on Tuesday, “desperate attempts” of the president for “sell his so-called Inflation Reduction Act”referred to as“scam”. Joe Biden replies that right-wing elected officials nevertheless welcome investments linked to his text. On Wednesday, he attacked a particularly virulent Trumpist parliamentarian, Lauren Boebert. The President joked regarding the fact that a gigantic wind turbine factory was going to see the light of day in the constituency of this “very discreet republican lady”who, like all of his camp, voted once morest the IRA. “But now everything is fine, she is rejoicing”launched Joe Biden.

(with AFP)