Senate Reconciliation Bill Slams Clean Energy at Trump's Urging

The reconciliation bill that will soon be voted on by the Senate (possibly today) is very bad news for the climate. Politico reports that at Trump's urging, Senate Majority Leader John Thune altered the bill so that:

The text would require solar and wind generation projects seeking to qualify for the law’s clean electricity production and investment tax credits to be placed in service by the end of 2027 — significantly more restrictive than an earlier proposal by the Senate Finance Committee that tied eligibility to when a project begins construction.

…The changes are likely to put some moderate GOP senators, who have backed a slower schedule for sunsetting those incentives, in a tough position. They’ll be forced to choose between rejecting Trump’s agenda or allowing the gutting of tax credits that could lead to canceled projects and job losses in their states — something renewable energy advocates are also warning about.

Key energy-related provisions summarized by Politico include:

  • Solar and wind generation projects be placed in service by (rather than started by) 2027,
  • Retain investment and production credits for baseload services, which includes nuclear, geothermal, hydropower or energy storage (not clear whether this also includes fossil fuels)
  • Extend a tax credit for clean hydrogen production until 2028.
  • Maintain an abrupt cut to the tax incentive supporting residential solar power,
  • Deny certain wind and solar leasing arrangements from accessing the climate law’s clean electricity investment and production tax credit
  • Move up the termination, date for electric vehicle tax credits to Sept. 30
  • bonus incentive for advanced nuclear facilities built in communities with high levels of employment in the nuclear industry.
  • Makes metallurgical coal eligible for the advanced manufacturing production tax credit through 2029.

New York Times compares the latest Senate bill to that in the House:

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Politico noted:

Sam Ricketts, co-founder of S2 Strategies, a clean energy policy consulting group, said the new draft is going to “screw” ratepayers, kill jobs and undermine U.S. economic competitiveness.

On Bluesky, Zeke Hausfather posted this:

The latest version of the Senate's BBB is a death sentence for US energy leadership and a giant gift to China. It eliminates tax cuts for solar that have been around since 2005, adds a new tax on solar after 2027, and creates a new direct subsidy for coal.

To put it another way, it takes the approach of actively penalizing the technologies of the 21st century and subsidizing the technologies of the 19th century. As solar, batteries, and electrification are rapidly adopted by the rest of the world, we are stepping backwards.

Trump's antipathy to clean energy is concerning beyond this bill given the hesitancy of Congress and Supreme Court to check his assertions of executive power.

3 Replies

@Robert J Hudson More from the Washington Post [Gift Link].

Princeton professor Jesse Jenkins posted on Bluesky:

The energy provisions in the Republicans' One Big Horrible Bill are truly so bad! Who wants this? The country's automakers don't want it. Electric utilities don't want it. Data center developers don't want it. Manufacturers in energy intensive industries don't want it.

The energy provisions in the Republicans' One Big Horrible Bill are truly so bad! Who wants this? The country's automakers don't want it. Electric utilities don't want it. Data center developers don't want it. Manufacturers in energy intensive industries don't want it. 🔌💡

It straight up murders the boom in battery, solar and wind manufacturing investment. It jacks up your utility bill & raises prices at the pump.

It kills a half a trillion dollars of pending investment in US manufacturing and energy supply and 100s of thousands of associated jobs. It makes our air dirtier and our climate more dangerous.

Seriously: Who … benefits from this, besides Joe Craft and his coal mining interests and a couple of big gas producers? Republicans are screwing over their constituents, American business interests, and our country's future in an epic way here.

Thanks for flagging, @Robert J Hudson. These summaries are all correct. The Senate is now proceeding to introduce and vote on amendments in the vote-o-rama process. Senators Ernst, Grassley, and Murkowski are introducing an amendment that would revert a lot of the clean energy provisions back to the Finance Committee version, i.e. get rid of the new excise tax on solar & wind, go back to 'placed in service' standard. So everything is still in flux. Please tune in to our training at 8pm ET tonight, where we'll talk about the latest happenings:

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