The US Senate adopted a sweeping climate and health plan from President Joe Biden’s administration on Sunday, after nearly 18 months of negotiations and a marathon night of debate.
By their votes alone, the Democrats have approved this plan of more than 430 billion dollars of investments, which should be voted on next Friday by the House of Representatives before being signed into law by Joe Biden.
In a statement following the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said “this bill will change America for decades to come.”
All Republican senators voted against the text, dubbed the “Inflation Reduction Act”, which they accuse on the contrary of generating unnecessary public spending.
The result of difficult negotiations with the right wing of the Democratic Party, this envelope includes the largest investment ever committed in the United States for the climate – 370 billion dollars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by to 2030.
Reacting to the vote, President Biden in a statement welcomed the passage of the bill in the Senate, while urging the House of Representatives to pass the text without delay. According to the New York Times, the adoption of this plan represents a significant victory for the president, with less than 100 days of midterm elections in which the Democrats will try to keep their fragile majority in the two chambers of the Congress.
With this reform, an American will receive up to 7,500 dollars in tax credits for the purchase of an electric car. The installation of solar panels on its roof will be covered at 30%.
This reform must also make it possible to strengthen the resilience of the forests in the face of the monster fires which are ravaging the American West and whose multiplication has been directly attributed to global warming.
Several billion dollars in tax credits will also be offered to the most polluting industries in order to assist them in their energy transition, a measure strongly criticized by the left wing of the party, which had to line up behind this text, for lack of reaching a more ambitious agreement.
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