This issue brief is part of a series from the Center for American Progress exposing how the sweeping Project 2025 policy agenda would harm all Americans. This new authoritarian playbook, published by the Heritage Foundation, would destroy the 250-year-old system of checks and balances upon which U.S. democracy has relied and give far-right politicians, judges, and corporations more control over Americans’ lives.
Two years ago, the Biden-Harris administration signed the landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law. This historic legislation, key to the administration’s ambitious climate agenda, is the largest clean energy investment in U.S. history.1 Since 2022, the IRA has saved Americans money,2 limited greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,3 and boosted clean energy.4 Its total benefits by 2030 are projected at $49 billion domestically and $5.6 trillion globally.5
As climate change devastates public lands and waters,6 economies, health, and infrastructure,7 building a clean energy economy to combat its impacts is a race against the clock. In recent years, climate change has intensified extreme weather events, increasing the frequency, severity, and danger to communities.8 Since June 2023, every month has set new heat records, with 2024 predicted to supersede 2023 as the warmest year ever recorded.9
Recognizing this urgency, the Biden-Harris administration has taken more than 300 climate actions to protect against the immediate and long-term threats of climate change.10 Their science-based approach has worked to reverse more than 150 harmful policies from the previous administration.11
The expansion of the U.S. clean energy sector both benefits consumers and addresses climate change. However, this domestic progress would be at risk under Project 2025, an authoritarian framework for federal reform drafted by the Heritage Foundation as a playbook for the next conservative administration.12
Project 2025 dismantles economic, social, and regulatory policies; halts efforts to combat the climate crisis and environmental injustice; and rejects the overwhelming scientific consensus driving climate action.13 The playbook threatens to reverse progress and return to policymaking that prioritizes fossil fuel profits over the well-being of Americans.
Learn more about Project 2025
Understanding the impact of clean energy accomplishments under the Biden-Harris administration is critical to recognizing Project 2025’s risks. This issue brief provides a comparison of the progress made by the current administration, through the IRA and other federal legislation, in various sectors and areas that have benefited under these laws and the implications of Project 2025 proposals to undermine it.
Clean energy investments are making U.S. climate action history
Biden-Harris administration actions
The Biden-Harris administration targets net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, with a 50 percent to 52 percent reduction by 2030, requiring annual 6 percent reductions from 2021—four times faster than Obama-era targets.14 Current federal policy, namely the IRA and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the bipartisan infrastructure law, put this goal within reach.15
The IRA offers rebates and tax credits for clean energy deployment.16 These measures are the single most important policy for meeting federal emissions reductions targets. Developers of clean energy projects can claim these tax credits, with additional incentives for projects in low-income or energy communities.17 The IRA reduces emissions 40 percent by 2030,18 with indications its tax measures yield the greatest reduction, at 300 million to 400 million tons of GHG reductions by 2035.19
By 2030, 80 percent of U.S. energy capacity is expected to come from renewables,20 with 310 gigawatts (GW) added by 2030 and 650 GW by 2035.21 IRA tax credits are fostering a low-carbon power sector that, supported by new pollution standards for power plants, vehicles, methane emissions, and energy-efficient appliances, put emissions abatement goals in striking distance.22 Under existing policies, emissions fall 38 percent to 56 percent below 2023 levels by 2035, with a 42 percent to 83 percent power sector decrease—the largest reduction among major industries.23
Project 2025 proposal
Project 2025 would increase GHG emissions, hindering the country’s battle against the climate crisis and exposing Americans to worsened public health and extreme weather risks.
“The next Administration should also push for legislation to fully repeal recently passed subsidies in the tax code, including the dozens of credits and tax breaks for green energy companies in Subtitle D of the Inflation Reduction Act.”
– Project 2025, p. 696
Proposals: Project 2025 would repeal IRA tax credits, weaken the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulatory authority, and lower or eliminate existing emissions standards. The playbook also recommends easing environmental permitting restrictions for new fossil fuel projects.
Impact: Project 2025’s stated policies would lead to increased GHG emissions, reversing years of progress and making it virtually impossible to limit warming to the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal that is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Dismantling federal oversight hinders emissions monitoring and increases public health and climate risks. Consequences include exacerbated extreme weather events such as heat waves, wildfires, and hurricanes. Secondary impacts, such as disruptions to power, water systems, transportation, and communication networks, threaten the health, economy, and safety of Americans.
American industrial innovation has unleashed a domestic manufacturing renaissance
Biden-Harris administration actions
Decarbonizing the industrial sector, responsible for nearly one-third of U.S. carbon emissions,24 is a challenge the Biden-Harris administration is tackling head-on—partly through the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), which oversees the implementation of $6 billion from the IRA and the IIJA for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Industrial Demonstrations Program (IDP).25 Funding is allocated to projects that advance industrial manufacturing processes and cut carbon emissions, avoiding 14 million metric tons each year26 and spurring private investment.27 For instance, Ohio’s Middletown Works steel plant will receive $500 million from the IDP and $1.3 billion privately, supporting leadership in decarbonized manufacturing while cutting 1 million tons of carbon emissions annually and generating $450 million in benefits.28
Additional funds for the research and development of clean energy technologies are available through the IIJA and the IRA to revitalize and strengthen core manufacturing.29 In the past two years, solar manufacturing has seen more than 132 projects announced,30 and investments in U.S. battery manufacturing have increased sevenfold.31 These investments limit dependence on foreign supply chains and enhance U.S. competitiveness.
Project 2025 proposal
Project 2025 would cut advanced manufacturing programs, undermining the country’s competitiveness in global clean technology manufacturing.
“The next Administration should work with Congress to eliminate all DOE energy demonstration programs, including those in OCED.”
– Project 2025, p. 382
Proposals: Project 2025 would cut financing and investments for clean energy technologies and industrial manufacturing. The authors of the playbook call to cut OCED programs working to improve sustainable development outcomes.
Impact: Project 2025 guts U.S. potential to compete with China for leadership in developing clean energy technologies and cedes global leadership in energy manufacturing and supply chain management. Eliminating programs, including IDP investments under the OCED, would halt a growing low-carbon industrial sector, ceasing economywide emissions reductions and forcing American reliance on foreign clean energy providers and markets.
The booming clean energy sector has created hundreds of thousands of new jobs
Biden-Harris administration actions
IRA and IIJA investments have created more than 334,500 new clean energy jobs.32 The policies support project labor agreements (PLAs), as well as prevailing wage and registered apprenticeship requirements, ensuring family-sustaining wages and good benefits for a variety of jobs.33 Under this legislation, the nation’s clean energy infrastructure is being built by a diverse, unionized, and skilled workforce that will continue to improve and maintain a grid protected against climate change.
As clean energy grows, a resilient grid and skilled workforce are essential. These jobs have supported the Biden-Harris administration’s investments of more than $30 billion to strengthen grid reliability and resilience, increase capacity, incorporate renewable energies, and protect from power outages.34 This includes $3.5 billion from the DOE, which sparked $8 billion in public-private investment to bring more than 35 GW of new renewable energy online—enough to power about 30 million households.35
Under the DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO), additional financial support is provided to projects that align federal energy priorities with those of U.S. states, maximizing pollution reduction and energy accessibility.36 Further investments are leveraging the clean energy workforce to modernize the nation’s transportation network through the installation of electric vehicle charging stations.37 Creating convenient, affordable, and reliable charging options for all Americans supports electrification of the transportation sector.
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Project 2025 proposal
Project 2025 would dismantle labor standards and defund renewable energy programs, sabotaging the clean energy transition and hindering Americans from accessing high-quality union jobs.
“Agencies should end all mandatory Project Labor Agreement requirements and base federal procurement decisions on the contractors that can deliver the best product at the lowest cost.”
– Project 2025, p. 604
Proposal: Project 2025 eliminates PLAs and prevailing wage and registered apprenticeship requirements, reducing labor standards for clean energy workers. It would block the expansion of the electrical grid for renewables and shift transportation infrastructure funding processes to states. In addition, it calls to defund grid deployment programs, cease grid-planning efforts for renewable development, and eliminate the LPO.
Impact: Defunding DOE programs removes a large fiscal promoter of economic activity, jobs, and energy advancement. Project 2025 would decimate the guarantee of a clean energy economy built by a trained workforce with high-quality jobs. Ending PLAs and tax credits for projects meeting workforce requirements would inhibit job creation and limit opportunities for well-paying union jobs.
Project 2025 policies increase communities’ vulnerability to power outages and cease the transition to clean energy by maintaining energy infrastructure incompatible with renewables. The playbook would impede the feasibility of large-scale clean energy production. Decentralizing funding for transportation infrastructure would inhibit transportation electrification and promote reliance on internal combustion engines due to inconsistent project implementation.
Historic conservation investments maintain long-term climate resilience
Biden-Harris administration actions
The Biden-Harris administration set a national conservation goal through the America the Beautiful initiative, which aims to conserve 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.38 As of publication, the administration has conserved more than 41 million acres of public lands and water in pursuit of this goal,39 benefiting American communities and protecting landscape diversity and connectivity. Total projections indicate the initiative could result in two to four times more carbon protected from loss by 2030.40
The Biden-Harris administration has invested an unprecedented level of funding for conservation commitments—more than $18 billion.41 The administration withdrew and protected from oil and gas drilling special areas such as Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and 28 million acres of public lands in Alaska.42 Additionally, the administration designated five new national monuments,43 including Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada, to protect sacred Tribal lands and species habitats.44 These actions promote long-term environmental sustainability and climate resilience, protecting valuable resources for communities, biodiversity, and the global climate.
Project 2025 proposal
Project 2025 would open sensitive public lands to oil and gas drilling, harming natural treasures and wildlife and jeopardizing clean water, all while prioritizing the fossil fuel industry’s interests over the well-being of Americans.
“The new Administration must seek repeal of the Antiquities Act of 1906, which permitted emergency action by a President long before the statutory authority existed for the protection of special federal lands.”
– Project 2025, p. 532
Proposal: Project 2025 advocates for accelerating oil and gas drilling on public lands, increasing lease sales, and eliminating conservation protections for treasured areas. It would remove the national conservation goal and repeal the Antiquities Act, which grants U.S. presidents the authority to preserve cultural resources and protect federal lands through the establishment of national monuments. Other proposals reinstate Trump administration-era policies that allowed for extensive drilling in places such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.45 Project 2025 calls to reverse protections for scenic and historic areas beyond existing national monuments and to open sensitive lands around Chaco Canyon, among other special places, to mining and drilling.
Impact: These rollbacks would dramatically accelerate the loss of natural lands in the United States, endangering nature and clean water access for communities and threatening wildlife. For more than a century, the Antiquities Act has safeguarded America’s lands,46 but Project 2025 would dismantle its protections, risk millions of acres, and destroy future preservation of cherished landscapes. Policies increasing resource extraction would erode the natural potential of carbon sequestration and destroy critical ecosystems to line the pockets of oil companies.
Centering environmental justice in policymaking is ensuring a cleaner, healthier future for all
Biden-Harris administration actions
The Biden-Harris administration launched the most ambitious and environmental justice-centered agenda in history to ensure that all communities have access to clean air and water. The IRA invested $55 billion to reduce local pollution and improve public health and economic security in communities of color and low-income communities.47 Combined with IIJA investments in pollution cleanup and lead pipe removal, the administration has backed its commitment to environmental justice with $148 billion.48
This funding has launched first-time efforts such as the Environmental and Climate Justice Grant program, which provides $3 billion in funding to reduce local pollution and GHG emissions, increase climate resilience, and improve public health in disadvantaged communities.49 Through a partnership between the EPA and the DOE, $177 million was allocated across 16 organizations under the Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers program (EJ TCTAC) to enhance access to funding opportunities and programs promoting environmental and energy justice priorities.50 Technical assistance programs, such as the EJ TCTAC, support capacity building and enable civic engagement and advocacy in decision-making, giving underrepresented communities a voice in collaborative problem-solving.
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These lifesaving investments are part of the administration’s historic Justice40 Initiative, which directs at least 40 percent of federal climate and infrastructure investment benefits to marginalized communities that are historically neglected and disproportionately affected by industry pollution and climate change.51 The initiative covers more than 500 federal programs, including the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund—a $27 billion program that works to reduce emissions and improve air quality—prioritizing disadvantaged communities.52
Project 2025 proposal
Project 2025 would dismantle key programs for public health and environmental justice, worsening hazardous pollution and environmental risks that endanger communities.
“The next Administration should stop using energy policy to advance politicized social agendas. Programs that sound innocuous, such as “energy justice,” Justice40, and DEI, can be transformed to promote politicized agendas.”
– Project 2025, p. 370
Proposal: Project 2025 proposes to eliminate programs that safeguard public health and advance environmental justice, disproportionately harming disadvantaged communities. It calls to disband the EPA offices that protect communities from entities that endanger public and environmental health with hazardous water, air, and chemical pollutants.
Impact: The proposals would undermine efforts to clean up pollution in communities and increase energy and health care costs, worsening climate, environmental, and public health risks for communities already overburdened by pollution. To disband existing EPA offices would disrupt the distribution of funds intended to tackle environmental injustices and support community-based organizations and community-led pollution monitoring. This would increase health disparities and environmental risk for Black, brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities, reversing progress made toward securing safe and healthy communities for all.
U.S. international climate leadership accelerates the global response to climate change
Biden-Harris administration actions
On the first day of the presidential term, The Biden-Harris administration rejoined the Paris Agreement53—restoring the United States as a leader in international climate and signaling a renewed dedication to aggressive climate action needed to stay within the 1.5 degree Celsius temperature rise limit. Under the Biden-Harris administration, the United States led by example at the United Nations’ 2023 climate change conference, helping to secure international commitment to “transition away” from fossil fuels.54 These actions bolstered global support for climate action and accompanied announcements for an array of U.S. initiatives and funding to address the climate crisis worldwide,55 including a $3 billion pledge to the international Green Climate Fund.56
Through investments from government agencies, the administration is supporting global clean energy initiatives around the world. The U.S. International Development Finance Corp. contributed to a $43 million investment backing a project that will bring 1,400 minigrids to India and Nigeria and prevent 350,000 tons of carbon emissions over its five-year period.57 The project will increase access to affordable and reliable clean electricity, enhancing economic and societal growth in rural communities, with a particular benefit to women and children. The Biden-Harris administration also launched the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE), a novel effort to support developing countries in adapting and building resilience to climate shocks.58
Project 2025 proposal
Project 2025 would withdraw the United States from international climate agreements and ramp up fossil fuel extraction, undermining U.S. climate leadership and compromising global climate action.
“The next conservative Administration should withdraw the U.S. from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.”
– Project 2025, p. 709
Proposal: Project 2025 withdraws the United States from international climate agreements and restricts financial support for global climate initiatives. It also includes recommendations to increase fossil fuel extraction and production across the Western Hemisphere.
Impact: The Trump administration withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, but the Biden-Harris administration swiftly rejoined, acknowledging it as the cornerstone of global climate action under the Senate-ratified U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.59 Project 2025 threatens to dismantle this framework entirely. Backtracking on U.S. commitments yields national leadership, alienates diplomatic partners, and weakens international climate efforts, increasing environmental and economic instability. Increased hemispheric fossil fuel extraction and diminished funding for international climate and energy programs would counteract and de-escalate emissions reductions, exacerbating climate impacts.
Conclusion
Transitioning to an inclusive clean energy economy is essential to overcoming impending climate change threats. This shift relies on enduring climate policies. If implemented as intended, the Biden-Harris administration’s climate policies will continue to improve the country’s economy and Americans’ quality of life, providing tangible benefits to families for decades to come. Now more than ever, we need robust legislation, such as the IRA, and strong leadership to secure a sustainable future—not regressive actions that threaten our planet and communities.