Congress Passes Country’s Largest Ever Climate Package

Today, the House passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the country’s largest ever climate bill, and now it heads to the President’s desk to become law.

The climate crisis is an existential threat to the outdoor community, public lands and waters, and the lives of people around the world, and outdoor recreationists experience the effects of climate change every day. Today’s vote marks a critically-needed step to address climate change and to reverse course, using the levers of government and the benefits of the market to drive climate-friendly policies and incentivize us to reduce carbon emissions, conserve public lands and waters, and shift toward renewable energy. The bill provides $369 billion in funding to address the climate crisis, including billions for wildfire mitigation, forest management, and conservation.

Thank your lawmakers

Outdoor Alliance’s CEO, Adam Cramer, had this to say: “Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act is nothing short of monumental—it’s the biggest step on climate we have taken as a nation. It proves that America can address the climate crisis with conviction and lead as the world expects us to. Even more inspiring is that the show is just beginning. The long-term incentives that the Inflation Reduction Act kicks off are likely to generate more innovation and a greater commitment to addressing climate change that will have a compounding effect.

We are grateful to Senators Manchin and Schumer for their painstaking work to render their vision to protect the climate into reality. This is a vision developed and nurtured by many lawmakers in the House and the Senate, as well as the Biden administration, and vision that we have pursued tirelessly at Outdoor Alliance. We are also grateful to the outdoor community at large for its contributions to this outcome—by personally vouching for the impacts of climate change on our mountains, forests, rivers, deserts, and coasts, for helping policymakers see our public lands and waters as a strategic asset in fighting climate change, and for insisting that Congress and the administration take action. While there is much more to do, the entire outdoor community is celebrating today’s vote.”

Among the biggest public lands and conservation provisions are:

More than $2 billion to make public lands resilient to severe wildfire. These funds are prioritized for projects that also support recreation infrastructure and access.
$50 million for identifying old growth forests and identifying actions to protect these important ecosystems from threats like climate change, fire, development, and drought.
$700 million for the Forest Legacy Program, which provides critical funding for conserving private forest lands for carbon storage, equitable recreation access, and other benefits.
$1.5 billion for tree planting and forest conservation projects in and around urban areas and underserved communities.
$500 million from ecological restoration, climate resilience, and other conservation projects on National Parks and BLM lands.
$500 million to address hiring and staffing challenges at the National Park Service
Important updates to oil and gas leasing and royalty rates to ensure a fair return for taxpayers, end unfair leasing practices, and address environmental hazards with oil and gas.
$2.6 billion for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for conservation of coastal and marine habitats and for helping coastal communities adapt to climate change impacts like extreme storms.
$200 million to support climate and other atmospheric research related to oceans and coasts.

While the bill also contained some unfortunate provisions on lease sales and drilling, we will continue to work with Congress and the administration to shift away from energy development on public lands, and we feel positive that market pressures will amplify the shift toward more climate-friendly energy policies.

Getting this bill across the finish line was a yearslong effort from many, including thousands of outdoor enthusiasts who wrote letter after letter (and are probably sick of our emails about it). If you have a moment, drop your lawmakers a thank you note and let them know you’re grateful for their work and hope to see more to come: