[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 133 (Saturday, August 6, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4063-S4065]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    INFLATION REDUCTION ACT OF 2022

  Mr. CARPER. Madam President, I rise this afternoon to speak in 
support of the historic legislation we are considering today, the 
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
  A little over a week ago, when I heard the news that there was an 
agreement reached to move forward on this legislation, I could not help 
but feel an overwhelming sense of relief and of joy, and I am not alone 
in feeling that way. I felt relief in knowing that, after months of 
negotiations and years of hard work from volunteers, from activists, 
from policy experts, from leaders at all levels of government and 
industry, and from so many others, we had finally broken the logjam on 
major climate and clean energy legislation. I felt joy in knowing that 
we were one step closer to delivering a major victory for the American 
people, one that will help reduce inflation and create good-paying jobs 
at the same time. My belief is that this legislation is an answer to 
our prayers for a brighter future for our Nation and for our planet.
  I might say to all of these young people who are sitting up here--we 
have a bunch of our pages who are here from all over the country; they 
are, for the most part, rising juniors and seniors--that they remind me 
a lot of our grandchildren, frankly, in my family and, for folks, of a 
lot of their children.
  This is for you. This is for your generation.
  This is for our kids, our grandchildren, our nieces, our nephews.
  This is for you.
  After enduring a deadly global pandemic for the last 2 years and the 
resulting political and economic turbulence flowing from it, the truth 
is that far too many Americans are struggling. They are hurting from 
the high cost of healthcare; they are hurting from rising living 
expenses and energy bills; and they are hurting from extreme weather 
that is costing us in terms of dollars and of lives.
  I know this because that is what I hear when I travel home to 
Delaware almost every night. I don't live here; I live in Delaware. I 
go back and forth on a train--a lot like a guy named Biden used to do 
when he was a mere Senator, along with Senator Chris Coons and Lisa 
Blunt Rochester, a Congresswoman. Whether it is a senior on a fixed 
income who is struggling with the cost of lifesaving prescription drugs 
or a young person who is living in a community that is prone to 
flooding from rising sea levels, many Delawareans of all ages are 
anxious about their futures, and they are pleading with us to do 
something about it.
  Scientists are also pleading with us for action, too, before it is 
too late. For years, they have warned us that time is running out, that 
we must shift away from fossil fuels to avoid a future of unrelenting 
extreme weather. Now scientists are telling us it is code red for 
humanity and for our planet.
  We are already experiencing a climate crisis, and Americans from 
communities large and small are feeling its impact, most notably in the 
form of extreme heat, wildfires, and floods.
  As I speak here today, nearly 100 million Americans from Texas to 
Maine are under heat advisories--100 million. There are also more than 
50 wildfires raging across the West, burning tens of thousands of acres 
in States like California and Montana and Idaho and Alaska. Just last 
week, catastrophic flash floods in Eastern Kentucky, not far from where 
my mom spent the last years of her life, have tragically claimed some 
37 lives.
  We know that these deadly, extreme weather events will only get worse 
in

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the years ahead without coordinated action--without coordinated 
action--and we know that the most vulnerable among us, including many 
communities of color, will suffer the most if we fail to act.
  The best science available tells us that to avoid the worst impacts 
of global warming, we must achieve something that is referred to as 
``net zero carbon emissions'' no later than the year 2050. Achieving 
this ambitious goal will not be easy, but it is achievable.
  As some of my colleagues will tell you, I am by nature an optimist. I 
always have been. Out of great adversity comes great opportunity. Those 
are the words of Albert Einstein. In adversity lies opportunity. There 
is huge adversity here but also great opportunity.
  I am proud to say that we are on the precipice of passing legislation 
that will channel American ingenuity to address this crisis, lower 
costs for families, and fight inflation. How will they do all of that? 
The Inflation Reduction Act includes nearly $370 billion in funding for 
climate and clean energy provisions. In other words, it will be the 
most ambitious climate legislation to ever emerge from this body. It 
does so by not raising taxes on people whose incomes are under 
$400,000, on families whose incomes are under $400,000, and it does so 
in a way that is not inflationary and that is fully paid for and 
offset.
  What will the impact be of this transformational climate legislation? 
Well, according to an analysis from Energy Innovation--some the 
smartest people here in this country who work on issues like this--
according to their analysis, passing this legislation will reduce net 
greenhouse gas emissions by a little bit over 40 percent by 2030. And 
as President Biden might say, that is a very big deal. He might say it 
differently but something along those lines.
  This legislation will, along with action from executive Agencies and 
State and local actors, will put us within reach of meeting our 
national target of cutting emissions in half by the end of this decade.
  In addition to slashing emissions from across our economy, this 
legislation will also unleash the potential of the American clean 
energy industry and create good-paying jobs throughout our country. In 
fact, it will create a ton of jobs. The analysis from the Political 
Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst 
projects that the Inflation Reduction Act--this legislation that we are 
debating--will help create 9 million jobs over the next decade--9 
million over the next decade.
  And the benefits to this historic package aren't just limited to 
emission reductions and to job creation. As its name suggests, this 
legislation will fight inflation and lower costs for many Americans. 
Again, ask: How?
  For starters, the Inflation Reduction Act will help homeowners save 
up to $220 a year on electricity costs, according to an analysis by the 
Resources for the Future.
  This legislation also includes huge healthcare savings for families 
across our country. For example, on average, median-income families in 
Delaware with exchange-based care will save upward of $1,000 annually. 
That is $1,000 back in their pockets.
  This bill will also ensure that our seniors don't face financial ruin 
paying for lifesaving prescription drugs. It does so, in part, by 
capping patients' out-of-pocket costs in the Medicare Part D Program at 
$2,000 per year.
  And the Inflation Reduction Act will help strengthen our tax system 
to better ensure that everyone pays their fair share and also to ensure 
that we have got decent constituent services for our constituents in 
our States. I don't care whether it is Minnesota, I don't care whether 
it is Delaware, or some other place, the IRS just hasn't had the 
resources, the people, the technology, to actually provide good 
constituent services. We are still waiting for people to get their 
returns from last year and their refunds from last year. That is just 
totally unacceptable. And over the last probably 30, 40 years, we have 
reduced by roughly a quarter the amount of resources that are available 
to actually serve people through the IRS.
  At the end of the day, the programs in this bill will help create 
jobs, lower costs for many American families, and fight inflation, all 
while addressing the imminent threat of climate change and doing so in 
a way that leaves no community behind. It is proof that we can do well 
and do good at the same time.
  As chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, I am 
especially proud that our $41 billion title within the purview of our 
committee prioritizes climate action in low-income and disadvantaged 
communities. This is part of ensuring that all communities, especially 
those most susceptible to the negative impacts of climate change, 
benefit from our funding to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce 
air pollution where they live--where they live.
  As part of that commitment, we provide $27 billion for the 
Environmental Protection Agency to create a greenhouse gas reduction 
fund, known as the Green Bank. It will help leverage private 
investments in projects that combat climate change, with over 40 
percent of these investments going to underserved communities. The 
climate impact of this program will be huge, removing the equivalent of 
some 15 million gasoline-powered vehicles from our roads over the next 
decade.
  We also provide $3 billion in competitive grants to States, Tribes, 
and municipalities--and to community-based nonprofit organizations--for 
financial and technical assistance to address clean air and to 
eliminate pollution in environmental justice communities.
  Our EPW title also provides some $3 billion to help reduce carbon 
emissions flowing from our Nation's ports. Doing so not only cleans up 
the air in nearby communities but also reduces our reliance on foreign 
fuels. And we provide $1 billion to replace dirty medium and heavy-duty 
vehicles with zero-emitting vehicles on our roads, reducing fuel 
consumption while allowing businesses that run those trucks to save 
significantly on their energy costs.
  While I wish I could discuss this afternoon every program in our 
title of the Environment and Public Works Committee, let me just close 
by sharing a few words on one program I am particularly proud of, our 
first-ever Methane Emission Reduction Program to rein in excess methane 
pollution from the oil and gas industry.
  Why did we create a program to reduce methane emissions? Why was this 
so important? Well, let me tell you this: Methane is more than 80 times 
more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. I will say that 
again. Methane is more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide as 
a greenhouse.
  There was a guy who used to be a bank robber named Willie Sutton back 
in the Great Depression. My friend from Iowa probably remembers Willie 
Sutton, not personally. But Willie Sutton robbed a lot of banks back in 
those days. He finally got caught and was brought to trial. And 
standing before the judge, the judge said: Mr. Sutton, why do you rob 
banks?
  Willie Sutton responded famously: That is where the money is, judge; 
that is where the money is.
  Well, there are huge emissions--huge emissions--that flow from 
methane. They ought to be captured; they can be captured, and the 
programs that we offer here, the funding we offer here, will help that 
to happen.
  We designed this commonsense program to provide $1\1/2\ billion to 
help businesses invest in existing technology to reduce potent methane 
emissions. It then ramps up a fee over time for emitters that fail to 
take advantage of this assistance. All told, we expect this program to 
raise about $6\1/2\ billion--that is billion with a ``b''--to offset 
the costs of other climate and environmental justice investments in the 
title of our committee's bill.
  Years from now--years from now--folks are going to gather here in 
this Chamber, and they will look back at what we had before us, what we 
were confronted with, and whether or not we made a difference. I hope 
they will judge us favorably.
  Let me just say, in closing, 2 weeks ago, they reported in London, 
England, a temperature of 105 degrees. For those of us who have been to 
England, you may know this: They don't even have air-conditioning in 
most places in England. The temperature there, 105 degrees. In the same 
week that the temperature was 105 degrees, folks were trying to run the 
bicycle event, the French bicycle event that is so famous, and they 
could not run parts of it because the pavement was melting. They

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had to put tens of thousands of gallons of water on the roads just so 
they could run the French bicycle race.
  I will close with this: In Louisiana, they have problems, they have 
challenges from sea level rise. How serious are they? Well, every 100 
minutes in Louisiana, they lose a piece of land to the ocean from sea 
level rise. Every 100 minutes they lose a piece of land the size of a 
football field. And today, this week, we are seeing incredible heat, 
incredible drought. From the west coast to the east coast, people are 
suffering, suffering, in some cases, injury and death. We have got to 
do something about it, and we are going to do that with this 
legislation and also make sure that a lot of folks who need jobs in the 
years to come will have a good-paying job. That is not a bad day's 
work.
  With that, I am pleased to take this piece of paper and read it to my 
colleagues, including the Senator from Iowa, who is waiting patiently 
for me to stop talking.

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