August 26, 2023 Op-ed by John Polimeni, Schenectady City Councilmember, Elected Officials to Protect America New York Leadership Council, EOPA Dept. of Energy Taskforce Chair The importance of the IRA can’t be understated for working families; it attacks the climate crisis, wage stagnation and inequality. This is important because many working families bear a disproportionate burden from harmful fossil fuel pollution. Often […]
August 26, 2023
Op-ed by John Polimeni, Schenectady City Councilmember, Elected Officials to Protect America New York Leadership Council, EOPA Dept. of Energy Taskforce Chair
The importance of the IRA can’t be understated for working families; it attacks the climate crisis, wage stagnation and inequality. This is important because many working families bear a disproportionate burden from harmful fossil fuel pollution. Often in low-income communities these neighborhoods experience higher rates of asthma and other negative effects including more lost workdays and premature deaths. The IRA invests in communities that suffer the most from environmental and health hazards, providing more than $3 billion to cut pollution and improve public health.
The key here is that the IRA relies on incentives rather than regulations allowing companies to invest in the best technology available. The IRA incentivizes use of the prevailing wage to help attract more young people manufacturing, particularly to enhancing clean energy infrastructure and capacity.
Incentives, investments, and job creation are vital for developing the necessary infrastructure to produce sustainable, clean energy. In particular, the IRA’s clean energy tax credits could add more than 1 gigawatt of new solar and wind capacity by 2030, creating millions of new jobs. The result will be a cleaner environment. Estimates are that the IRA will accelerate carbon reduction 31 to 44 percent.
For the very first time, Congress is using clean energy tax incentives for job creation and developing a transition from fossil fuels; an investment of $370 billion. The IRA is the country’s most significant investment in clean manufacturing in history, capable of creating an estimated 9 million jobs over the next ten years.
In my hometown of Schenectady, funding of wind power has resulted in 200 new, high-paying jobs and $50 million invested in the General Electric facility. Additionally, in nearby Albany, investment in wind power is creating 500 construction jobs with 500 to 550 direct wind power jobs. These newly created 750 permanent jobs will benefit those families that have been hard hit by a bad economy, high utility costs, and struggling to put food on the table. Other families have struggled with high utility costs, trying to figure out how to heat and cool their home for their families. The I.R.A. provides New Yorkers with the opportunity to purchase energy efficient appliances that will save them money – real savings resulting in real effects. That’s the impact that these jobs will have in communities around the nation, just like in mine.
Schenectady has also been impacted by the effects of climate change, particularly with flooding. The IRA provides funding to communities like mine that will boost resilience, for example for flood-proofing. You can’t imagine the devastation that flooding has caused families and individuals in Schenectady. To look at the devastation in their faces is heartbreaking. Hopefully I will never have to console one of the families or individuals in Schenectady again because their residence was destroyed by flooding as a direct result of climate change.
While this legislation is the largest federal climate investment in history, it is just the start towards the goal of net zero carbon emissions in the U.S. Its success is dependent on a number of factors requiring sustained attention and investment from the federal government, state and local governments, private industry, and society. The U.S. is a global trailblazer looked to for leadership. Everyone wants and needs clear air, water, and soil. This is an opportunity for the U.S. to show other nations the path forward, for industry to adopt clean energy technologies globally. The I.R.A. has put us on the path towards energy security with a clean energy economy.
Below is a shorter version was published August 24, 2023 in the Daily Gazette:
This week is the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The importance of the IRA can’t be understated for working families. It attacks the climate crisis, wage stagnation and inequality.
The IRA invests in communities that suffer the most from environmental and health hazards, providing more than $3 billion to cut pollution and improve public health.
The key is that the IRA relies on incentives rather than regulations allowing companies to invest in the best technology available.
Incentives, investments and job creation are vital for developing the necessary infrastructure to produce sustainable, clean energy. Estimates are that the IRA will accelerate carbon reduction 31% to 44%.
The IRA is the country’s most significant investment in clean manufacturing in history, capable of creating an estimated nine million jobs over the next ten years.
We have already seen the benefits of the IRA in Schenectady, with 200 new, high-paying jobs and $50 million invested in G.E. In Albany, investment in wind power is creating 500 construction jobs with 500-550 direct wind power jobs.
This job creation will benefit those families that have been hard hit by a bad economy, high utility costs, and struggling to put food on the table.
The IRA provides people the ability to purchase energy efficient appliances that will save them money – real savings with real effects. That’s the impact that these jobs will have in communities around the nation, just like ours.
The IRA has put us on the path towards energy security with a clean energy economy.
John Polimeni, Schenectady
