Missing From the Climate-Energy Legislation: Bikes!

Missing from the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act, the significant climate legislation which passed the Senate on a 51-50 party-line vote on Sunday with Vice President Harris casting the tie-breaking vote, is any mention of bikes.

2 minute read

August 9, 2022, 12:00 PM PDT

By Irvin Dawid


“The $369 billion climate package unveiled by Democrats last week is chock-full of subsidies for technologies meant to rein in planet-warming pollution,” writes Dino Grandoni, who covers energy and environmental policy for The Washington Post, on Aug. 2.  The bill passed the Senate in a marathon vote over the weekend and now goes to the House.

But there’s one popular, emissions-free machine conspicuously absent from what could be the nation’s most significant piece of climate legislation yet: the bicycle.

The omission was not an oversight. It was deliberate.

“Provisions designed to supercharge the sale and use of traditional bikes and the battery-powered variety were dropped from the climate deal reached by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), the Senate’s most conservative Democrat. 

Dropped from the deal is a tax credit worth up to $900 to help cyclists purchase electric bikes. Also gone is a pretax benefit for commuters to help cover the cost of biking to work. Versions of both benefits were included in the roughly $2 trillion spending package that passed the House last year. [See Build Back Better].”

The tax credit for bike commutersrepealed by Republicans in 2017 in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the benefit would have been similar to the tax savings offered to commuters who pay for transit or parking.

“I’m surprised that that didn’t make it in, because it just seems so common-sense,” said Caron Whitaker, the deputy executive director of the League of American Bicyclists, a cycling advocacy group.

David Zipper, a visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government where he examines the interplay between urban policy and new mobility technologies, told Alex Daugherty of POLITICO (in a  July 28 piece included in the Debate, Criticism, Commentary section in the featured post on the legislation):

“We need people not just to shift from gasoline cars to electric cars. We need people to shift from cars, period. We can do that. But there’s nothing in this bill that makes that process easier or faster or more likely to happen.”

Hat tip to The Washington Post's Energy and Environment newsletter, Aug. 4.

Related posts:

Tuesday, August 2, 2022 in The Washington Post

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Cover CM Credits, Earn Certificates, Push Your Career Forward

Aerial view of town of Wailuku in Maui, Hawaii with mountains in background against cloudy sunset sky.

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly

Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

July 1, 2025 - Honolulu Civil Beat

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

July 2, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

White and purple sign for Slow Street in San Francisco, California with people crossing crosswalk.

San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths

Citing “a challenging fiscal landscape,” the city will cease the program on the heels of 42 traffic deaths, including 24 pedestrians.

July 1, 2025 - KQED

Google street view image of strip mall in suburban Duncanville, Texas.

Adaptive Reuse Will Create Housing in a Suburban Texas Strip Mall

A developer is reimagining a strip mall property as a mixed-use complex with housing and retail.

6 hours ago - Parking Reform Network

Blue tarps covering tents set up by unhoused people along chain link fence on concrete sidewalk.

Study: Anti-Homelessness Laws Don’t Work

Research shows that punitive measures that criminalized unhoused people don’t help reduce homelessness.

July 6 - Next City

Aerial tram moving along cable in hilly area in Medellin, Colombia.

In U.S., Urban Gondolas Face Uphill Battle

Cities in Latin America and Europe have embraced aerial transitways — AKA gondolas — as sustainable, convenient urban transport, especially in tricky geographies. American cities have yet to catch up.

July 6 - InTransition Magazine