Casten Celebrates Passage of Largest Investment in Climate Action in US History
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06) voted to pass the Inflation Reduction Act — historic legislation that will lower families’ kitchen table costs, create millions of good-paying jobs delivering the most significant action on climate in history, and dramatically reduce the deficit.
“Today, I voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, a historic win for American families and for the future of our planet,” said Rep. Sean Casten. “Not only will this legislation help tackle the climate crisis, it’ll lower energy costs and bring down the price of prescription drugs.”
“In March, I led 89 of my colleagues in calling on President Biden to restart negotiations to pass significant climate action. I believed that climate could–and should–serve as a base we could build upon for reconciliation, and I’m incredibly proud to see that become reality.
“While this is the largest investment in climate action in United States history and there is so much worth celebrating, we can’t lose sight of the work we have left to do. This is the first real energy Congress has passed in 17 years. We cannot afford to wait another 17 years to pass our next climate legislation.
“In the years to come, we’ll be judged by whether or not we’ve reduced emissions to the degree necessary to leave a livable planet behind for our children and grandchildren. This is a fantastic step towards achieving that goal.”
During debate on the Inflation Reduction Act, Rep. Casten addressed the House floor to urge his colleagues to vote yes on the legislation. You can watch his remarks by clicking here.
As part of the Inflation Reduction Act, Rep. Casten advocated for and secured the following provisions:
- Lowering Energy Costs
- $9 billion in consumer home energy rebate programs, focused on low income consumers, to electrify home appliances and for energy efficient retrofits.
- 10 years of consumer tax credits to make homes energy efficient and run on clean energy, making heat pumps, rooftop solar, electric HVAC and water heaters more affordable.
- $4,000 consumer tax credit for lower/middle income individuals to buy used clean vehicles, and up to $7,500 tax credit to buy new clean vehicles.
- $1 billion grant program to make affordable housing more energy efficient.
- Clean Energy Manufacturing
- Production tax credits to accelerate U.S. manufacturing of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and critical minerals processing, estimated to invest $30 billion.
- $10 billion investment tax credit to build clean technology manufacturing facilities, like facilities that make electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels
- $500 million in the Defense Production Act for heat pumps and critical minerals processing
- $2 billion in grants to retool existing auto manufacturing facilities to manufacture clean vehicles, ensuring that auto manufacturing jobs stay in the communities that depend on them.
- Up to $20 billion in loans to build new clean vehicle manufacturing facilities across the country.
- $2 billion for National Labs to accelerate breakthrough energy research.
- Decarbonization
- Tax credits for clean sources of electricity and energy storage and $30 billion in targeted grant and loan programs for states and electric utilities to accelerate the transition to clean electricity.
- Tax credits and grants for clean fuels and clean commercial vehicles to reduce emissions from all parts of the transportation sector.
- Grants and tax credits to reduce emissions from industrial manufacturing processes, including almost $6 billion for a new Advanced Industrial Facilities Deployment Program to reduce emissions from the largest industrial emitters like chemical, steel and cement plants.
- Over $9 billion for Federal procurement of American-made clean technologies to create a stable market for clean products, including $3 billion for the U.S. Postal Service to purchase zero-emission vehicles.
- $27 billion clean energy technology accelerator to support deployment of technologies to reduce emissions, especially in disadvantaged communities. A Methane Emissions Reduction Program to reduce the leaks from the production and distribution of natural gas.
The Inflation Reduction Act will lower costs for families, combat the climate crisis, reduce the deficit, and finally ask the largest corporations to pay their fair share. President Biden and Congressional Democrats are on track to deliver a historic legislative achievement that defeats special interests, delivers for American families, and grows the economy from the bottom up and middle out.
- It will lower energy costs by hundreds of dollars per year for families by making clean energy more affordable and accessible; spur an unprecedented expansion in clean energy deployment and manufacturing with more than 950 million solar panels, 120,000 wind turbines, and 2,300 grid-scale battery plants powering our homes, businesses, and communities by 2030; and position America to achieve the President’s climate goals through the most significant legislative step forward to cut carbon pollution in history. And, it will create good-paying jobs, advance environmental justice at a historic scale, and strengthen American energy security.
- After almost three decades of attempts, it lowers prescription drug costs for millions of Americans by hundreds – or in some cases thousands – of dollars per year, by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for high-cost drugs, requiring Medicare rebates from drug manufacturers increasing prices faster than inflation, capping annual out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses for Medicare beneficiaries, and capping the cost of insulin for Medicare beneficiaries at no more than $35 a month.
- It saves about 13 million Americans an average of about $800 per year on their health care premiums, by continuing the improvements to Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits enacted in the American Rescue Plan (ARP). By making health care more affordable, these improvements have expanded coverage to millions of people, helping bring the uninsured rate to an all-time low. Extending them will build on this progress and help reduce health disparities.
- It makes our tax code fairer, raising revenue by cracking down on wealthy millionaires and billionaires and large corporations that evade their obligation to pay tax and on large, profitable corporations that currently get away without paying a dollar in federal income tax and by imposing a 1% surcharge on corporate stock buybacks that will encourage businesses to invest. No family making less than $400,000 per year will see their taxes go up.
- It fights inflation by achieving hundreds of billions in deficit reduction—on top of the more than $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction achieved this year and the more than $350 billion achieved last year, following years of fiscal recklessness and mismanagement under the prior Administration.
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