The American Congress was to definitively adopt Joe Biden’s major climate and health reform on Friday, and thus sign a major victory for the American president and his greenhouse gas reduction objectives.
Debates on this vast law, the result of long months of negotiations with the right wing of the Democratic Party, began in the morning in the House of Representatives. The presidential party being in the majority there, the text should, except for a huge surprise, be adopted there later in the day.
The Senate approved the bill on Sunday, which offers Democrats an important argument to make before the perilous legislative elections in November, the outcome of which is uncertain.
Hailed by the majority of associations fighting against climate change, it includes 370 billion dollars dedicated to the environment, and 64 billion dollars for health.
The bill, called “Inflation Reduction Act”, intends at the same time to reduce the public deficit with a new minimum tax of 15% for all companies whose profits exceed one billion dollars.
The Republican camp, for its part, accuses the text of generating unnecessary public expenditure. Former President Donald Trump called on his Truth Social social network for all Republicans to speak out against it.
– Largest climate investment –
Coming to power with huge reform projects, Joe Biden originally pleaded for an even larger investment plan.
But the elected Democrats have gradually had to revise their ambitions downwards, in order to satisfy in particular Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a state known for its coal mines. His support was essential given the very thin Democratic majority in the Senate.
The text remains despite everything the largest investment ever made in the United States for the climate.
It intends to put the country on the right trajectory to achieve its climate goals, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030.
The goal set by Joe Biden is a reduction of at least 50% by this date, but other measures, in particular regulatory measures, could make it possible to partially fill the gap, according to experts.
“I think it would be really difficult to overstate the importance of this bill,” said Dan Lashof, director of the World Resources Institute in the United States, this week.
“By creating strong incentives to invest in solar and wind power, it will virtually dry up the market for coal-fired electricity over the next decade,” he said.
Under this reform, an American will receive up to 7,500 dollars in tax credits for the purchase of an electric car. The installation of solar panels on its roof will be covered at 30%.
Investments are also planned for the development of CO2 capture techniques, the resilience of forests to fires, and the renovation of housing for the most modest households.
Several billion dollars in tax credits will also be offered to the most polluting industries to help them in their energy transition – a measure strongly criticized by the left wing of the party, which despite everything had to line up behind this text.
– Cheaper drugs –
The second part of this major investment plan intends in part to correct the huge inequalities in access to care in the United States, in particular by lowering the price of drugs.
Medicare, a public health insurance system intended among others for those over 65, will for the first time be able to negotiate the prices of certain drugs directly with pharmaceutical companies, and thus obtain more competitive rates.
Seniors will also be guaranteed not to have to pay more than $2,000 per year for their medication, starting in 2025.
The bill also plans to extend the protections of the “Affordable Care Act”, the emblematic health insurance better known as “Obamacare”, which contained measures facilitating access to health insurance through grants to help families pay for medical coverage.
This law is “historic” and allows “to fight the climate crisis” and “to finally make the rich pay their fair share”, declared Friday the president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
The American president, with an anemic popularity rating and who desperately needs a political success, will still have to initial the text after its adoption by the House.