After "closing agreement" on the issue in late July, this Sunday (07), after a long debate session, the U.S. Senate approved a package that includes the largest individual climate investment in the country's history.

Now that it has passed the Senate, the $430 billion bill moves to the U.S. House and, if it becomes law, will provide a billion-dollar investment in climate and energy security that should reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by about 40 percent by 2030 (compared to the base year 2005).

One of the goals of the legislation is to reduce carbon emissions and encourage the transition to clean energy sources. Leah Stokes, a professor of climate and energy policy at the University of California who advised Democrats on the bill, said the text should boost the manufacture of solar batteries and electric vehicles and also contain the largest investment in environmental justice of all time, contributing to the goal of decarbonizing the U.S. economy by 2050. The text allocates millions of dollars to finance climate resilience for U.S. tribal governments and Hawaiian natives, as well as $60 billion for protection measures in areas most affected by climate change.

Today's approval could be considered a major victory for Democratic President Joe Biden at a time when his party is struggling to maintain the sparse majorities in the House and Senate on the eve of the midterm or midterm elections that will take place in November.

Currently the U.S. Senate is made up of 48 Democrats, 2 independents (who vote with Democrats) and 50 Republicans. Projects that need a simple majority, as is the case with this one, then need 51 votes to be approved. All republican senators were against this bill, and what made the final score 51 to 50 was precisely the vote of minerva of Vice President Kamala Harris.

"Today, Senate Democrats allied themselves with American families for special interests, voting to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, health insurance and daily energy costs and reduce the deficit, while making the wealthiest corporations finally pay their fair share," Joe Biden said in a statement.

In addition to the climate profile, the Inflation Reduction Act also includes measures to reduce health costs for millions of Americans by allowing Medicare, the government's program for the elderly and disabled, to negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies and for its users to pay a ceiling of up to $2,000 a year,  saving $288 billion for the federal government.

Republicans say the bill won't reduce inflation, it should end many jobs and reduce the country's growth, especially in states heavily dependent on oil, coal and gas.

The House now plans to meet next Friday (12) to seek to approve the text, sending it in sequence for Biden to sign.

The text was initially presented in Congress as the "Build Back Better," a trillion-dollar social security plan. However, in the face of the many difficulties to move forward, Democrats have tinkered with the legislation over the past few months and renamed it. The idea is that in addition to encouraging the green economy and reducing living costs for Americans, who are experiencing a time of high inflation by the country's standards, the new law could reduce the federal deficit by up to $300 billion over a decade and help reduce spending for the population in the long run.

Source: Um só Planeta