Federal Laws Will Drive Huge Capital Outlays by U.S. Power Industry

November 21, 2022--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The management consulting firm ScottMadden Incorporated (Atlanta, Georgia) titled its fourth-quarter energy industry update "Money, Money, Money," borrowing the title from the Swedish pop group ABBA's song from the 1970s. But it wasn't a bout of nostalgia that drove that titling decision. First, as Cristin Lyons, a partner and the firm's energy practice leader, told listeners on a November 9 webcast, money "is what everyone (in the energy industry) is talking about." Second, with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), and to a lesser degree the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021, the electric power industry is expected to spend an unparalleled, eye-popping amount of capital, particularly in the 2030s.