The third anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law on August 16, 2022, is approaching. However, with many of its provisions facing termination by the current Congress and president, the legislation may not reach a fourth anniversary.
Critics have pointed out that the IRA’s name does not reflect its actual impact. According to commentary from the Capital Research Center, “A spending proposal that threatened to loot $1.5 trillion from American taxpayers if left in place, the IRA was the opposite of ‘inflation reduction.’ The only honest word in the name was ‘Act.’” Much of this funding went toward wind turbines and solar panels.
Since the passage of the IRA, Capital Research Center has published several reports evaluating weather-dependent energy sources. One report from January 2025, “Low-Quality Energy for the LIDACs and $21.8 Billion in Waste from the EPA,” highlighted issues such as significant losses by automakers on electric vehicles (EVs). For example, Ford reportedly lost a cumulative $10 billion on its EV program since 2022. Divided among Ford’s 89,000 U.S. employees, this loss could have translated into bonus checks exceeding $112,000 per worker; instead, Ford reported a $58,000 loss for each EV sold last quarter.
Another report examined accidents involving renewable energy infrastructure. On January 11 at the Colorado-Nebraska border, a wind turbine either caught fire and fell or fell and then caught fire during adverse weather conditions. A local resident commented: “Our country is too big and too diverse to rely on one source of energy… But I don’t know if this one has been thought out. You need to have a plan to take care of stuff like that.”
Wind and solar energy accounted for only 2.6 percent of total U.S. energy consumption in 2023—just slightly more than what is generated from burning wood and trash.
Concerns were also raised about land use requirements for renewable projects compared to traditional power plants. A Bloomberg News analysis found that a 200-megawatt wind farm might require up to 19 square miles of land, while a natural gas plant with similar capacity could fit onto a single city block.
Wildlife impacts were another focus area for critics of renewables subsidized by the IRA. On April 6, NextEra Energy pleaded guilty to three federal charges related to killing eagles with wind turbines and agreed to pay fines totaling over $8 million along with additional commitments for future prevention efforts. Prosecutors alleged that NextEra’s operations had killed approximately 150 eagles across eight states.
Environmental nonprofits such as Natural Resources Defense Council, League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, and Environmental Defense Fund have promoted weather-dependent energy despite these concerns; their combined annual budgets exceed $1 billion.
Robert Bryce has extensively reported on wildlife impacts linked to renewables and discussed these topics in an interview on Capital Research Center’s InfluenceWatch Podcast #301: The Politics of the Power Grid.
Bryce also co-produced “Juice: Power, Politics and the Grid,” which examines how policy decisions have affected regional power grids nationwide regardless of political affiliation.
Additional reports by Capital Research Center continue to analyze aspects such as tax credits supporting wind power projects and corporate involvement in climate-related initiatives.
