Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Environmental Law | Housing Law

Abstract

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August 2022 was an important step forward in American climate policy. The Act is essential to the United States’ goal of effective climate change mitigation efforts, and other countries have even begun to use it as a model for climate mitigation. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides the framework by which the United States will transition away from fossil fuels and move towards an energy grid powered predominantly by renewable sources. For the first time, the Act addresses head-on the climate and environmental injustices that exist in the United States due to decades of structural inequities that have directly harmed people of color and low-income individuals. However, these environmental injustices are connected to housing injustice, which also disproportionately harms these same vulnerable groups. Low-income tenants often bear the brunt of all of these injustices, due to a lack of legal protection, stability, and resiliency in their homes. While there are crucial environmental justice provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, its preeminent method to shift to renewable energy is the use of tax credits, which favor energy developers and leave tenants behind. Tax credits are likely to reinforce existing inequalities, and here, incentivize development that could lead to further gentrification. Without housing justice, there is no environmental justice nor climate justice. This Note proposes that in conjunction with the IRA, there needs to be a legislative push for localized, renter-protective policies that will create stability for low-income renters and allow the benefits of the IRA (like clean energy, greener neighborhoods, and cheaper energy prices), to be shared with the communities that need these benefits the most.

Download

Share

COinS