Reference no: EM133323256

Case Study: On August 16, 2022 President Joe Biden signed The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) see [1]), a landmark United States federal law seeking to curb inflation by reducing the deficit, lowering prescription drug prices, and - object of this discussion forum - energy security and climate change investments. This act showed renewed commitment from the US to combat climate change and at the same time it created new opportunities for domestic employment and also for international trade. Whether it will establish US as the worldwide leader of climate change investments and technologies is far from clear. In fact, if public and private investments aimed at accelerating the energy transition are combined, China is by far and away the biggest spender and probably neither the IRA nor Europe's Green Deal appear likely to change that (China spent $297.5 billion last year on the energy transition, while EU member states devoted $155.7 billion and the US $119.7 billion) [2].

Domestically the IRA could mean more clean energy jobs created in related sectors by building a new clean energy manufacturing economy through investments in refurbishing old factories; building new factories; requiring high wages; and mandating apprenticeship training for companies using clean energy tax credits (e.g., see [3]). It is expected to increase the demand for occupations, such as wind turbine service technician, production of batteries, and solar panels' technicians. In fact, projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show wind turbine service technician is the fastest-growing job in the country after "excluding occupations with above average cyclical recovery" and this occupation is estimated to grow by 68.2% between 2020 and 2030. Solar photovoltaic installers is also the third fastest-growing job - after excluding jobs with "above average cyclical recovery" - with projected employment growth of 52.1% from 2020 to 2030. [4].

Question: 1.What do you think the future role of the US will be as a provider of resources and technologies to combat climate change? Will the innovation power US demonstrate in many other sectors expand to such technologies or has US lost the window of opportunity and is doomed to lag behind China and potentially EU?

Question: 2. Do you expect IRA bill to spur domestic demand and create all the jobs it is supposed to or is this just a temporary development and - as is the case with many other manufactured goods - those jobs will eventually leave the US towards low-wage countries?

Question: 3. How could such a bill benefit the companies where you work and you personally?