What the Inflation Reduction Act has achieved in its first year

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN has conceded that the name was a mistake: the success of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), his flagship legislation, should not be measured by its effect on inflation. These days the IRA is most often associated with decarbonisation—that is, by the few Americans who know about it. Mr Biden hopes to be re-elected next year, and this week he and his administration marked the anniversary of the IRA’s passage by touring the country to tout the benefits it has brought. What impact has the law actually had?

The IRA was so named in a vain attempt to rally support from voters, who in 2022 were worried about high inflation. Mr Biden had originally included climate policies in his sprawling Build Back Better agenda, which collapsed in December 2021 because of opposition from within his Democratic Party. Its revival—in the form of the much smaller IRA—was a surprising victory for Democrats.