Since the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term, three little words keep coming up.
In one of his first executive orders, the president instructed agencies to terminate the so-called “Green New Deal,” which he has described as “ridiculous” and “incredibly wasteful.” The administration’s disdain for the concept is clear, with Trump and press secretary Karoline Leavitt referring to it as “the Green New Scam.”
In reality, there is no Green New Deal law in effect in the United States today, despite previous attempts to pass one in Congress. What Trump actually paused funding for in his executive order was the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, a spending bill passed under former president Joe Biden and the largest investment in clean energy in U.S. history.
The Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, was heralded as a major win for climate organizers — but most of them don’t think the law lives up to their original vision of a transition to renewable energy that creates good, well-paying jobs. In the face of rollbacks, these ... Read more
