“The Inflation Reduction Act is a robbery of such magnitude that it makes the Lufthansa heist look like child’s play over chump change.”
“Congress should repeal the IRA in totality. If Congress cannot or will not act, then state legislators should be prepared to pick up the slack.”
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL (March 4, 2025) – The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on August 16, 2022, but the contents of the legislation are contradictory to its stated purpose.
A new Policy Study by The Heartland Institute titled “The High Costs of Climate Scams: Assessing the Green Giveaways in the Inflation Reduction Act,” explains how the real point of the IRA is the creation of an enormous renewable energy slush fund, paid for by deficit spending. The lion’s share of that spending comes in the form of tax credits to “green” energy sources such as wind and solar power, battery storage, and electric vehicle (EV) purchases. The IRA also directs substantial funding and subsidies for “environmental justice” initiatives and green lobbying groups, many of which are sketchy, newly formed entities.
After its enactment into law, Biden acknowledged the IRA had “nothing to do with inflation.” Rather, the green subsidies contained in the bill, which the Biden administration said would total $369 billion, amounted to what they described as “the most significant action…taken on clean energy and climate change in the nation’s history.” Since then, however, the price tag on these tax credits has increased substantially, with a wide range of predictions for how much they will ultimately cost. All credible estimates are significantly more than the Biden administration initially claimed, including one that puts the actual cost as high as $1.8 trillion.
The best way to eliminate the IRA’s enormous and wasteful subsidies would be a total and complete federal repeal of the IRA.
The Heartland Institute is the world’s leading think tank pushing back against climate alarmism with scientific data. It has held 15 International Conferences on Climate Change that have brought together more than 200 scientists and policy experts who do not think human activity is causing a “climate crisis.”
The following statements from climate and energy experts at The Heartland Institute may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, or speak to them for your story, please contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] and (cell) 312/731-9364.
“As this paper makes clear, the true cost of the Inflation Reduction Act is orders of magnitude higher than what the Biden administration claimed back in 2022 — and, as was well known, was never intended to actually do it’s titular purpose. The real point of the IRA was the creation of an enormous renewable energy slush fund to funnel money to unaccountable ‘green’ groups led by well-connected Democrat politicos and donors, all paid for by deficit spending. It is a robbery of such magnitude that it makes the Lufthansa heist look like child’s play over chump change.
“The lion’s share of that deficit spending comes in the form of tax credits to ‘green’ energy sources such as wind and solar power, battery storage, and electric vehicle (EV) purchases. All these subsidies do, however, is distort market dynamics by artificially lowering the cost of certain renewable technologies. In the absence of these subsidies, the true costs of these technologies, including their intermittency and storage needs, would be more apparent. By providing financial support, the federal government is effectively masking economic reality, distorting markets and investment, resulting in an inefficient allocation of scarce resources.
“For these reasons and more, Congress should repeal the Inflation Reduction Act in totality. If Congress cannot or will not act, then state legislators should be prepared to pick up the slack. In fact, they should be prepared to move forward regardless of what happens in Washington. While state government action can only have an effect around the margins, legislation copied directly, or based on, the three pieces of model legislation provided in the appendix of the paper can serve as useful tools in blunting the fiscal impact of the IRA.”
Tim Benson
Senior Policy Analyst
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“The laughingly titled, Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), was never about reining in inflation. Rather, it was a huge down payment on former President Joe Biden’s all of government approach to fighting climate change, funding dozens of unproven, expensive, climate schemes, none of them effective in or needed to fight climate change. This paper details the high and rising costs of the IRA that continue to contribute to higher prices for energy, food, and common household goods, while robbing the public of choice.
“Almost as offensive as the egregious waste of billions of dollars for paltry results in terms of climate infrastructure built, was the “shoveling of gold bars off the Titanic,” that occurred towards the end of Biden’s term when his administration, with little oversight or accountability, granted tens of billions of dollars to NGO start-ups run by friends of the administration, organizations with no track record or evidence they could or would handle that money wisely or in the public interest.”
H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D.
Director
Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
The Heartland Institute is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1984 and headquartered in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our website or call 312/377-4000.
