Hickenlooper: Inflation Reduction Act Is ‘Beginning of a Long, Forced March’ on Climate We’ll ‘Have to All Work Together on’

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN International’s “Amanpour,” Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) stated that the Inflation Reduction Act reconciliation bill is “the first step” on climate and “not the end. It’s the beginning. It’s the beginning of a long, forced march that we’re going to have to all work together on. But it allows us to imagine a successful outcome.” And gets us most of the way to what President Joe Biden committed to during the campaign.

Hickenlooper stated, “I mean, we’re looking at $369 billion as a total package addressing climate [in] every facet, or at least almost every facet. There may be a couple of things that aren’t completely covered here. But this is the first step of what’ll be a — again, it’s not the end. It’s the beginning. It’s the beginning of a long, forced march that we’re going to have to all work together on. But it allows us to imagine a successful outcome. I mean, the modelers are telling us that they think it will reduce greenhouse gases — greenhouse emissions by 40% by 2030. That’s 80% of what President Biden committed to during his campaign, and everyone thought that, oh, you’ll never get there. Well, now, all of a sudden –.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett