President Biden signs new inflation bill designed to fight climate change

President Biden recently signed a new inflation bill that contains groundbreaking legislation to fight climate change.

Joining Horizon to talk about the impact is Sandy Bahr, chapter director of Sierra Club Grand Canyon.

It includes more than $360 Billion dollars to address climate change.

Bahr says that this bill is long overdue. “It’s not quite everything we wanted but it is a really good start. And it is a good package for Arizona specifically,” Bahr said.

The way that this would affect Arizona specifically is that Arizona would see funding for energy efficiency, including rebates for those with low to moderate incomes. Rebates for energy efficient appliances and tax credits for solar. “It is estimated that there will be about an additional 150,000 people who install rooftop solar because of the provisions in the bill,” she said.

Tax credits for electric vehicles, used and new, are included in the bill, making these vehicles more affordable to the general public.

These incentives are good, according to Bahr. “It is particularly important in a state like Arizona where … the governor and the legislature just aren’t doing anything for climate change. They are not passing bills, they are not talking about it, and they are not talking funding it,” she said.

The solar incentives are particularly important for Arizona, as it is a very sunny state.

The law is expected to lower greenhouse emissions by 40% by the end of the decade.

“Arizona is feeling the impacts of climate change every day,” Bahr said. “The more that we can reduce emissions sooner, the more we can avoid the worse impacts down the road. We already have historic drought, we have shortages on the Colorado River that are partly attributable to that, to climate change.”

Bahr said there are also provisions to help deal with the climate change effects that are already here.