
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) at a press event on Aug. 4 rallying Democrats around the newly unveiled Inflation Reduction Act. (Image credit – Office of Sen. Schumer)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) at a press event on Aug. 4 rallying Democrats around the newly unveiled Inflation Reduction Act. (Image credit – Office of Sen. Schumer)
On Aug. 7, the Senate voted 51 to 50
Facing unified Republican opposition, for the past year Democrats have been negotiating the bill’s contents so as to secure the unanimous support needed within their ranks in the Senate to pass it using Congress’ budget reconciliation process. Now that IRA has cleared that hurdle, the House is temporarily returning from its August recess tomorrow to approve the bill
IRA’s climate-related provisions will cost about $370 billion over multiple years and mainly comprise measures such as tax incentives and grants aimed at decarbonizing the economy and boosting resilience against environmental hazards. Within that funding, billions of dollars are allocated for scientific research and technology development, including a one-time $2 billion boost
IRA’s funding for DOE lab projects is far less than the nearly $23 billion the House Science Committee proposed last year
Manchin, though, soon withdrew his support for the Build Back Better Act as a whole, halting its progress, and since then he has been the key gatekeeper for any efforts to pass a revised version. While IRA is, at Manchin’s insistence, narrowly focused on climate and energy, healthcare, and tax reform, a fraction of the DOE labs funding he previously advanced still made it through to the final version.
All the lab funding in IRA will be appropriated immediately and remain available through fiscal year 2027. While the act specifies how much individual DOE program offices will receive, it otherwise grants the department discretion around what projects to spend the money on.
High-energy physics ($304 million). The Fermilab-led LBNF/DUNE neutrino project is a likely candidate to receive a share of the funding, as it has experienced more than $1 billion in cost growth over the past few years. DOE has stretched out the project’s schedule to accommodate the increase, and, whereas it was once hoped science operations would begin in 2026, it is now expected to be ready in the early 2030s
Other high-energy physics projects that could receive funding include the U.S. contributions to the forthcoming luminosity upgrades to the Large Hadron Collider at Europe’s CERN lab. At the moment, DOE is aiming to catch up following a shortfall in the project’s appropriation
Nuclear physics ($217 million). Construction of the Nuclear Physics program’s flagship Electron-Ion Collider will ramp up at Brookhaven National Lab following the planned shutdown of the lab’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in 2025. EIC Project Director Jim Yeck recently testified
Basic energy sciences ($295 million). DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences program is stewarding a large portfolio of construction projects at its user facilities. One possible candidate for supplemental funding is the Second Target Station project at Oak Ridge National Lab’s Spallation Neutron Source. The station is expected to cost about $2 billion and would help alleviate a chronic shortage of capacity
Fusion energy sciences ($280 million). The U.S. contribution to the international ITER facility under construction in France is the main project DOE’s Fusion Energy Sciences program is currently supporting. Last year, the head of the U.S. project office for ITER, Kathy McCarthy, testified before Congress
Advanced scientific computing ($164 million). DOE is completing installation of exascale computers at Oak Ridge and Argonne National Labs, and it is not clear what follow-on projects might qualify for IRA funding within the Advanced Scientific Computing Research program. However, the program is planning to build a facility that will help handle the increasingly large volume of data DOE science facilities are producing. The CHIPS and Science Act also directs DOE
Isotope program ($158 million). Oak Ridge plans to construct a Stable Isotope Production and Research Center as well as a Radioisotope Processing Facility to expand domestic production of critical isotopes. Work on the former facility has yet to fully ramp up and the latter remains in its early design phase. Concerns surrounding isotope supply chains have recently become more urgent
Lab infrastructure ($583 million). IRA includes $133 million for general infrastructure projects at labs overseen by the DOE Office of Science. It will also provide $450 million for infrastructure and general plant projects that is divided evenly between the DOE Offices of Nuclear Energy, Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
According to a recent Congressional Research Service report, IRA will expand DOE’s loan authority from $24 billion to $332 billion. (Image credit – CRS)
Aside from its support for scientific research, IRA’s vast array of decarbonization measures include provisions aimed at encouraging the deployment and commercialization of new technologies. Notably, it multiplies
In addition, IRA aims to encourage the deployment of a new generation of nuclear reactors by appropriating $700 million to expedite the availability of the high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel many will use. HALEU is uranium that is enriched so that between 5% and 20% of its weight is composed of the highly fissile uranium-235 isotope. Russia is currently the world’s main HALEU supplier, and, even before the invasion of Ukraine, Congress was eager to develop domestic sources.
Within the Department of Transportation, IRA appropriates $245 million to fund projects relating to the production of sustainable aviation fuel and $47 million for projects related to low-emission aviation technology.
Among its other funds for NOAA, IRA provides support for climate and weather research and forecasting, comprising:
$190 million for high-performance computing and data management
$150 million for research, observation systems, modeling, forecasting, and information dissemination, including extramural grants
$100 million for hurricane hunter aircraft acquisition, and
$50 million for climate research grants
The bill also includes $23.5 million for the U.S. Geological Survey’s 3D Elevation Program, which provides high-resolution topographic data with a variety of uses, including in climate resilience, disaster response, and clean energy deployment.