Protecting and Accelerating the IRA
Passing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was just a start—now we must invest deeply in accelerating implementation of the IRA’s benefits in order to realize its full potential.
ACE’s IRA Accelerator launched in November 2022 to accelerate: 1) the siting and permitting of utility-scale renewables, 2) the uptake of the retail-side benefits of the IRA for consumers, and 3) the transition of workers into the clean economy. A year in, we have successfully engaged more than 25 million under-reached Americans and completed more than a dozen field experiments to ensure our approach is working.
Unfortunately, a tsunami of disinformation continues to derail counties and townships across the United States from approving utility-scale renewable energy projects, delaying consumer uptake of the retail-side benefits of the IRA, and standing in the way of state-based ambition to pass 100% clean energy legislation. The vast majority of proposed utility-scale clean energy projects are in rural zip codes and Republican-held districts.
At the same time, just a third of the American public knows that the IRA has been enacted into a law. In order to protect the IRA and maximize its benefits, we must also work quickly to socialize the consumer-facing benefits of the IRA to average Americans.
As we celebrate the first year of impact of the IRA Accelerator, we set our eyes on dramatically scaling this work into 2024 and beyond. Join us.