Turning Point: Green Industrial Policy and the Future of U.S. Climate Action

Abstract

In the first two years of the Biden Presidency, Congress passed three massive funding bills, which poured hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy infrastructure, R&D, and deployment. Although the direct effect of these laws will be dramatic, this article focuses on positive feedbacks that will amplify those direct effects. Those feedbacks operate via impacts on innovation, regulation, and politics, all of which lead to expanded use of clean energy at the expense of fossil fuels. In turn, these impacts expand the production and use of clean energy, closing the feedback loops. Taking full advantage of these dynamics will require a more coordinated government effort, and the article discusses a coordination method pioneered by some states.

Keywords: climate policy, renewable energy, Inflation Reduction Act, energy policy