Infrastructure Bill Makes Major Investments to Accelerate Clean Energy and Climate Innovation, Says ITIF

WASHINGTON—As President Biden prepares to sign the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which cleared Congress on November 5, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, released the following statement from David Hart, ITIF’s director of Center for Clean Energy Innovation:

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) includes major investments that will accelerate clean energy and climate innovation. Of special note is its allocation of more than $20 billion to pilot and demonstration projects to accelerate carbon capture and removal, hydrogen, and green industrial technologies. This sum vastly exceeds prior investments in these fields. The Act also establishes a new office in the Department of Energy to oversee these projects, addressing a major weakness in its management structure.

The IIJA is far from the last word on climate and clean energy innovation policy. There is still much more to be done to create the solutions that will make it possible for the world to get to net-zero emissions.

For more on this issue, please see:

• David M. Hart, “Building Back Cleaner With Industrial Demonstration Projects” (ITIF, March 2021).
• Robert Rozansky and David M. Hart, “More and Better: Building and Managing a Federal Energy Demonstration Project Portfolio” (ITIF, May 2020).
• Varun Sivaram, et al., Energizing America: A Roadmap to Launch a National Energy Innovation Mission(ITIF and Columbia University Center for Global Energy Policy, September 2020).