Maine AFL-CIO Applauds Inflation Reduction Act Becoming Law
The Maine AFL-CIO applauds the signing into law of the Inflation Reduction Act. We thank Congressman Jared Golden, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and Sen. Angus King for voting to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which will lower health care and energy costs, boost domestic production of clean energy and create a fairer tax system. President Biden signed the bill into law this week. Specifically, the act will:
- Allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices for seniors.
- Create inflation caps for Medicare prescription drugs.
- Improve Medicare prescription benefits.
- Prevent a premium spike for Affordable Care Act enrollees.
- Impose a 15 percent minimum corporate tax on corporations with profits exceeding $1 billion.
- Reduce climate pollution by 40 percent.
- Provide tens of billions in energy investment and production tax credits.
- Include tens of billions in manufacturing tax credits.
- Support electric vehicle purchases by the Postal Service.
- Fund the Department of Energy to make hundreds of billions of dollars of loans to upgrade energy and grid infrastructure.
- Enact clean energy tax incentives.
- Lower the cost of installing renewable energy and doing energy efficiency upgrades on tax-exempt entities like schools, hospitals, municipal buildings, post offices, and others.
- Create nearly 1.5 million new jobs and spur economic growth concentrated in clean energy. These clean energy jobs have strong labor standards attached included prevailing wage and apprenticeship utilization standards.
- Create incentives for installing energy efficient heat pumps.
The Labor Energy Partnership, a joint project of the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) and the AFL-CIO, has analyzed the Inflation Reduction Act and concluded that it would add nearly 1.5 million jobs and $250 billion to the economy by 2030, increase per capita personal income by several thousand dollars, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 40 percent, and decrease overall energy use through energy efficiency and innovation.
“Enacting the Inflation Reduction Act would be the single most significant step to date for building a secure and resilient clean energy economy,” said Ernest J. Moniz, the former secretary of energy and CEO of EFI.
At the same time, annual inflation is projected to return to the Federal Reserve target of about 2 percent within a couple of years.