A Deep Dive into How the Inflation Reduction Act Will Protect Public Lands and the Climate

Antelope Canyon, Arizona. Photo credit: Christopher Ruel. Navajo land.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which became law last month, is a historic investment in addressing the climate crisis. The final bill, clocking in at 273 pages, is formidable. It offers many different approaches for addressing climate change, including investments in more protected lands and waters, incentives for clean energy, and funding for wildfire mitigation, coastal resilience, and environmental reviews.

From a climate change perspective, the most important aspects of the IRA are the investments in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing carbon emissions is the most important way to slow the climate crisis, protect people and communities, and help the U.S. meet its climate goals. Climate change is an existential threat to the planet, as well as to public lands and outdoor recreation, and this bill is the most significant action ever taken by the U.S. to address climate change. Many of these investments come in the form of tax credits, grants, and other economic incentives intended to spur investments in clean energy and emissions reductions. Experts estimate that these will help reduce U.S. carbon emissions to approximately 40% below 2005 levels by 2030, bringing the U.S. within striking distance of our overall 2030 climate goals.

While there is a lot in the bill that’s outside of Outdoor Alliance’s purview, we wanted to offer a deeper dive into some of the public lands provisions that will most directly affect the outdoor recreation community. In particular, the funding for federal agencies like the Forest Service, Park Service, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will be transformative for the agencies’ capacity to manage public lands and waters, and this will have a real impact on the millions of Americans who get outside each year. These investments also reflect a view (shared by Outdoor Alliance) that investments in public lands and waters are a key way to fight the climate crisis and have many attendant benefits for people who like to get outside. You can read more in our recent letter on how IRA funds can best be used for restoration and conservation.

THE IRA RECOGNIZES THAT PUBLIC LANDS ARE PART OF NATURAL CLIMATE SOLUTIONS AND THAT LAND MANAGEMENT AGENCIES NEED RESOURCES TO TACKLE THE CLIMATE CRISIS.

Investments in Public Lands and Waters to Fight Climate Change

The IRA provides an infusion of funding for the Forest Service, National Park Service, and BLM that will greatly improve their ability to fulfill their missions and tackle climate change. Some of the key pieces include $700 million (which will nearly double the fund over the next ten years) through the USFS Forest Legacy Program, a voluntary program for landowners who want to protect private forestlands from development; $500 million for conservation and habitat restoration at the Department of Interior; as well as $500 million for addressing chronic staffing issues at the National Park Service, and $200 million for priority deferred maintenance projects at National Parks. The bill also provides $50 million for completing an inventory of old growth and mature forests on National Forests, and for developing conservation strategies for these forests.

Protections for Beaches & Coasts

Coastlines and beaches are on the frontlines of a changing climate. The IRA includes significant investments in coastal communities, including $2.6 billion for NOAA to restore and protect coastal communities and habitats, a program that Surfrider says will help protect and restore “blue carbon ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrass meadows, and salt marsh that are a first line of defense against storm surge and sea level rise and incredibly efficient carbon sinks. The act also provides critical opportunities for better coastal zone planning as our coastlines change with a changing climate.”

Addressing Drought

Addressing climate change, protecting and restoring rivers and ecosystems, and creating recreation opportunities can go hand-in-hand. The Inflation Reduction Act includes $4 billion in drought mitigation funding to create new wet water in the Colorado River Basin. The goal is to prioritize conservation measures that leave more water in the basin, which can have cascading benefits for ecosystems and river recreation if we also take into consideration the timing and quantity of water moving downstream. Moving forward, funding from the IRA should prioritize multi-use benefits that include river recreation.

Wildfire-Resilient Landscapes

Wildfire affects millions of Americans each year, particularly in the west. The IRA includes funding for wildfire mitigation activities, including $2 billion for fuel reduction projects on National Forests. This funding will help the Forest Service accomplish their 10-year Wildfire Crisis Strategy and reduce the risk of megafires, while also requiring the USFS to take conservation concerns into account in the design of fuel reduction projects. The IRA also supports wildfire mitigation work on non-federal lands by providing $550 million for forest restoration and workforce development programs for private landowners, Tribes, nonprofit organizations, and state and local governments.

Tribal Climate Resilience

The IRA includes funding specifically for Tribes, for climate resilience and adaptation, as well as funding to mitigate drought impacts. The bill includes investments for a Tribal Electrification Program to help Tribal homes transition to zero-emission energy systems and also funds energy development projects like transmission lines, renewable energy, and storage facilities through the Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program.

Efficient and Effective Environmental Reviews

Putting the Inflation Reduction Act into action will require a government-wide effort to support new clean energy infrastructure and climate adaptation projects. Many of these projects will need to be designed and implemented quickly in order to achieve our climate goals, which will require agencies to complete environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws efficiently. The IRA provides hundreds of millions of dollars for agencies to complete environmental reviews, which is important considering that lack of agency capacity is one of the key reasons that environmental reviews don’t move faster. These investments will help ensure that clean energy projects do not come at the expense of a transparent public process, and that agencies can adequately address community concerns, such as environmental justice issues, before projects move forward.

ENSURING A FAIR RETURN FOR DEVELOPMENT ON PUBLIC LANDS

The IRA makes a series of long-overdue changes to the federal oil and gas leasing system designed to ensure a fairer return for taxpayers. The IRA increases royalty rates for onshore oil and gas leases, which until earlier this year had not been raised in more than 100 years. It also increases the minimum lease bid to $10/acre (up from $2/acre); raises rental rates; establishes a new fee for nominating parcels for leasing; ends noncompetitive leasing; and establishes royalties for methane, a potent greenhouse gas produced by drillers.

As we mentioned previously, one problematic provision of the IRA is the arbitrary requirement that Interior must offer up a minimum acreage of oil and gas leases before allowing rights-of-way for renewable energy development. Mandates for increased leasing are less than ideal, but the required minimums in the bill are not far off the historic average of what Interior has offered, and Outdoor Alliance will continue to stay engaged to lessen the impacts of oil and gas development and ensure that leasing happens in places that have the fewest conflicts with other uses and values.

A MIXED BAG FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ISSUES

Although the IRA makes significant investments in environmental justice issues, it has also been criticized for some provisions, such as mandates for new fossil fuel leasing, that will have disproportionate impacts on frontline communities. On the plus side, the bill includes billions of dollars for environmental justice priorities, including $3 billion for “climate justice block grants” for disadvantaged communities that include pollution monitoring, mitigating climate and health risks from extreme heat and wildfire, climate resiliency, and facilitating better engagement for disadvantaged communities in various rulemakings and other processes. Many of the programs funded through the IRA are prioritized for low-income and disadvantaged communities. For example, more than half of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund—a new program to incentivize climate investments—must flow to disadvantaged communities. Other examples include $3 billion for addressing equity and quality-of-life issues related to transportation projects in neighborhoods, $3 billion for reducing air pollution in and around ports, and $1 billion to support investments in zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles like garbage trucks, with a focus on the areas with the highest levels of air pollution.

At the Forest Service, the IRA will provide $1.5 billion to the Urban and Community Forestry program for grants for tree planting and urban forestry projects, a key way to mitigate urban climate impacts like heat islands. For scale, this program has been funded at about $32 million in recent years, so this is a substantive increase. Trees capture carbon, fight climate change, provide shade that protect communities during heatwaves, and are a critical part of both healthy ecosystems and livable communities. This funding is important for addressing tree equity and expanding access to nature in park-poor areas.

Despite these investments, the IRA has also been criticized by groups like the Climate Justice Alliance for expanding fossil fuel development, which will have disproportionate effects on frontline communities located near projects like oil and gas leases.

CONCLUSION

Given the scope of investments included in the IRA, there will be continued work for the outdoor recreation community and other groups interested in conservation and environmental justice to ensure that these funds are expeditiously and thoughtfully put into action to build clean energy economy and to support climate-resilient public lands.

If you’d like to do more, start by thanking your lawmakers for prioritizing climate action: