When President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in 2022, Democrats imagined he was setting a new policy feedback loop in motion. Voters would see how the law was changing their communities — investing in new factories and solar farms — and then rally to protect it from Republicans.

That didn’t happen. Last summer, Republicans in Congress repealed many of the law’s best climate policies. So what broke down?

On this episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Alexander Gazmarian, a political science professor at the University of Michigan and the co-author of a new paper about why the IRA had limited political returns. Rob and Alex discuss whether voters noticed the climate law, the trade-off between taking credit for policies and de-polarizing them, and why politicians’ credibility matters so much when designing economic policy.

Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap News.

You can find a full transcript of the episode here.

Mentioned:

The new paper: Why Biden-era clean energy investment policies had limited political returns

Rob’s original article about the ‘Green Spiral’

From Heatmap: Does More Renewable Energy Lead to More Political Support? Not in Texas.

From Heatmap: Inside Form Energy’s Big Google Data Center Deal

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This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by …

Accelerate your clean energy career with Yale’s online certificate programs. Explore the 10-month Financing and Deploying Clean Energy program or the 5-month Clean and Equitable Energy Development program. Use referral code HeatMap26 and get your application in by the priority deadline for $500 off tuition to one of Yale’s online certificate programs in clean energy. Learn more at cbey.yale.edu/online-learning-opportunities.

Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A New Theory About Why Biden’s Big Climate Law Failed

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer

A New Theory About Why Biden’s Big Climate Law Failed