Status: Published
**Citation:**Bistline, J., M. Brown, M. Domeshek, C. Marcy, N. Roy, G. Blanford, D. Burtraw, J. Farbes, A. Fawcett, A. Hamilton, J. Jenkins, R. Jones, B. King, H. Kolus, J. Larsen, A. Levin, M. Mahajan, E. Mayfield, J. McFarland, H. McJeon, R. Orvis, N. Patankar, K. Rennert, S. Robson, C. Roney, E. Russell, G. Schivley, D. Shawhan, D. Steinberg, N. Victor, S. Wenzel, J. Weyant, R. Wiser, M. Yuan, and A. Zhao. 2024. Power Sector Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Environmental Research Letters 19(1): 014013.
The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is regarded as the most prominent federal climate legislation in U.S. history. This paper investigates potential impacts of IRA on the power sector, which is the focus of many core IRA provisions, and assesses robust findings and variation in investments, emissions, and costs using an 11-model comparison. Models suggest that power sector CO2 emissions could drop 66-87% by 2035 with IRA from 2005 (compared with 39-68% without IRA). This analysis also finds that IRA could accelerate clean electricity deployment, including 1.4-6.2 times current installed wind and solar capacity by 2035. Low-emitting generation shares—including renewables, nuclear, and carbon capture—in 2035 range from 59-89% with IRA (compared with 46-74% without IRA).
A two-page summary of this research is available at: Power Sector IRA Impacts Paper Summary (epri.com)
Link to Journal Publication: Power sector impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 - IOPscience