Was the IRA a Win for Environmental Justice? It’s Complicated

Environmental justice (EJ) advocates — defenders of communities that are most disproportionately impacted by climate change and pollution — are divided on the big climate bill that recently became law. But most can agree on one thing: It improves on what came before.

That’s not necessarily saying much. The last major climate bill in Congress — the doomed American Clean Energy and Security Act, also known as Waxman-Markey, which died in the Senate in 2010 — offered little mention of disadvantaged communities and even less funding for them. Activists feared its provisions for emissions trading and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) ...