Following decades of disappointment, environmental activists celebrated Sunday’s narrow vote in the U.S. Senate for the nation’s biggest investment, by far, in the fight against climate change.

Should the the Inflation Reduction Act pass the House, possibly later this week, and receive President Joe Biden’s signature as expected, it would devote $369 billion toward efforts to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change.

Multiple scientific models show it should cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by about 40% by 2030, leaving the nation within striking distance of national and international goals to reduce emissions 50% by that year.

“If it (passes)… it will mark a true milestone in the United States,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It will be the first legislation in history that will clearly and tangibly reduce carbon emissions at a national scale.”

It’s a pivotal moment, added Mary Anne Hitt, a longtime climate activist who spent decades fighting to close coal-fired power plants and whose thoughts turned to her daughter.

“I just want to run and tell her that we’re one step closer to doing what we need to do to ensure she has a safe future,” said Hitt, now senior director at Climate Imperative, a climate change nonprofit.

Heather Zichael, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, called the bill’s tens of billions of dollars in renewable energy investment “a generational opportunity for clean energy after years of uncertainty and delay.”

The bill’s focus on expanding the U.S. domestic manufacturing base will be unprecedented, she added. “This is the vote heard around the world. It puts America on a path to creating 550,000 new clean energy jobs while reducing economy-wide emissions 40% by 2030.”

What does the bill do?

Experts say the bill could transform the American transportation and power sectors, which are the nation’s largest contributors of greenhouse gases, at 27% and 25% respectively, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Tens of billions of dollars would go toward supporting renewable energy development, lowering the costs of electric vehicles, building out public charging stations, weatherizing homes, plugging leaks of greenhouse gases from pipelines and wells, lowering emissions from the agricultural sector, and supporting communities near polluting industries.

A more detailed summary highlights billion-dollar line items:

  • More than $60 billion to support U.S. clean energy manufacturing, including $30 billion in incentives for wind, solar and battery production. It also includes $10 billion in tax credits for the construction of facilities that make electric cars and renewable energy technologies and $2 billion in grants to “retool” existing car factories for electric vehicles.
  • Another $60 billion to invest in low-income communities that bear a disproportionate burden of pollution, including money to reduce pollution from factories and ports and purchase cleaner public transportation vehicles.
  • $30 billion in grants and loans to states and electric utilities to help them transition to cleaner forms of electricity.
  • $27 billion for a clean energy technology accelerator to “support deployment of technologies to reduce emissions, especially in disadvantaged communities.”
  • More than $20 billion in investments to support agricultural practices that reduce emissions.