Opinion: The Inflation Reduction Act invests in Alaska and America. We need to defend it.

When President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), his signature climate and energy law, in August 2022, he knew it would need defending.

Biden was unable to convince a single Republican colleague to vote for the hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy investment the IRA would unleash. Not even national security arguments could sway them. With China dominating the rapidly advancing clean energy economy — solar, wind, batteries, EVs—shouldn’t the U.S. invest in manufacturing these technologies at home, or risk being left behind, a dinosaur in the new energy economy, a nation of ghost towns where oil, gas, and coal have faded to irrelevance, totally dependent on China to supply our solar panels and batteries?

Yet Republicans’ fealty to the fossil fuel industry was too great, and the law passed on party lines, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. So mightn’t the next Republican administration simply undo it?

Here’s where Biden and the IRA’s architects acted shrewdly. They designed the law so that nearly 80% of the hundreds of billions of dollars in projects built or announced so far has flowed into Republican districts.

How many Republicans who voted NO have happily taken credit when a new solar factory or EV plant breaks ground in their districts, providing jobs and local investment? (As when Sen. Lisa Murkowski proclaimed how proud she was of the $47.6 million Alaska received through the EPA’s IRA-funded Clean Ports Program.) And how many of them will now be willing to claw back funding, shutting off that firehose of investment that’s benefiting their own constituents?

And if there’s one state that stands to benefit from IRA investments, it’s Alaska. Our oil economy is already faltering and dragging our state into a budgetary crisis since oil prices plunged in 2014. Oil prices are set to plunge further, as the International Energy Agency now projects that global oil, gas and coal demand will all peak before 2030 before entering terminal decline. A January oil lease on the Arctic coastal plain received zero bids — unsurprising for a soon-to-be-declining industry in such a remote environment. Alaska’s wildly expensive LNG project becomes more of a pipe dream with each passing year, as renewables boom and far cheaper gas flows from the Permian Basin and Marcellus Shale.

Meanwhile, IRA investments are already flowing into Alaska. Rebates for household electrification—EVs, rooftop solar, home batteries, heat pumps, electric water heaters, and induction stoves—are cutting Alaskans’ energy costs and cushioning against the looming Cook Inlet gas crisis. Alaska received nearly $125 million from the EPA’s Solar for All grant program, spurring rooftop, community, and utility-scale solar projects around the state, benefiting low-income communities and tribes. The Golden Valley Electric Association received $100 million for grid updates to accommodate solar and battery storage, while the economic development organization Southeast Conference received $40 million for heat pump deployment. These are just a tiny preview of the massive investments Alaska could see from the IRA’s uncapped incentives.

But the Trump Administration has already thrown Alaska investments into chaos and confusion. Trump froze hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to fund dozens of clean energy projects across rural Alaska, plunging their future into uncertainty.

On Tuesday, House Republicans narrowly passed a budget resolution calling for $1.5 trillion in spending cuts (to partially offset trillions in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans) — the first step in the arcane “reconciliation” process through which Democrats passed the IRA in the first place. Where will Republicans find those deep cuts? Facing furious backlash against cutting Medicaid, Republicans are placing clean energy incentives on the chopping block. Yet it will not be easy to kill these incentives with so much money for Republican districts at stake.

As Alaskans, we must defend these historic investments. Call Sen. Murkowski, Sen. Sullivan, and Rep. Begich and tell them to reject any budget reconciliation bill that kills IRA provisions, because they’re investing in Alaska, creating jobs and energy security for our state. Our small population gives us Alaskans powerful voices — let’s use them.

Zach Brown is the founder and co-director of Tidelines Institute. He lives in Gustavus, AK with his wife and son.

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