Green gauge

The Inflation Reduction Act brings money for climate research, but there is an energy trade-off

At the beginning of his presidency, Joe Biden laid out an ambitious legislative agenda—pledging to curb healthcare costs, collect more taxes from massive corporations, make big investments in science and technology, lower carbon emissions and boost clean energy R&D.

In the next year and a half, progress was frustratingly limited. The Democrats’ razor-thin majority and party infighting made it difficult to pass anything significant, and it seemed that much of Biden’s vision would not come to fruition.