Above, Michigan farmer who helped bring wind, and now solar fields, to his community hopes that his positive message will break through to Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, a reckoning is coming in the US House.
With the margin razor thin in the US House, the loss of even one or two Republican votes will cause any initiative to fail, as Democrats seem united.
Now we approach the moment of truth for key clean energy programs that have been creating thousands of jobs in Red districts across the country, and lawmakers are a bit skittish about chopping incentives that are making their home communities prosper.
A growing number of House Republicans are urging the party to preserve the clean energy tax credits in Democrats’ climate law — and warning they may oppose the party’s budget bill if those incentives get axed.
In a letter shared exclusively with POLITICO, 21 House Republicans — whose districts have drawn billions in new investments because of the Inflation Reduction Act incentives — said developing clean energy was critical for the U.S. to meet President Donald Trump’s goal of becoming “energy dominant.” And they threatened to resist their colleagues’ efforts to gut the law to help pay for a small fraction of the GOP’s multi-trillion-dollar tax-cut package.
“We have 20-plus members saying, ‘Don’t just think you can repeal these things and have our support,’” said Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), who organized the letter.
The growing pushback against eliminating the IRA’s hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits and other incentives — which have largely benefited GOP-controlled districts — will complicate efforts by House Republicans to slash federal outlays without shrinking Medicaid spending as they seek to offset the tax cuts in their budget bill.
“We need the projects that are currently under development to be brought online so we can continue the President’s ‘America First’ agenda,” added Garbarino, who previously led a letter last fall with 17 other Republicans urging leadership not to gut the credits. “These [credits] are helping the president accomplish what he said he wanted to do in his campaign, and that was to make America an energy dominant country.”
Up until now, Republicans haven’t detailed how far they are willing to go to protect these credits as Trump seeks to dismantle former President Joe Biden’s climate agenda, even as other members have loudly balked about cuts to Medicaid.
But it could start to become clearer this week which particular credits are on the chopping block as House Republicans start to fill in the details of the budget bill they intend to pass through the reconciliation process. That process allows them to bypass the Senate filibuster and deliver it to Trump’s desk with only GOP votes.
Letter from Representative Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) to Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.):
As energy demand continues to skyrocket, any modifications that inhibit our ability to deploy new energy production risk sparking an energy crisis in our country, resulting in drastically higher power bills for American families. This is especially true for energy credits with direct passthrough benefit to ratepayers, where such repeals would increase utility bills the very next day.
As our conference works to make energy prices more affordable, tax reforms that would raise energy costs for hard working Americans would be contrary to this goal. Further, affordable and abundant energy will be critical as the President works to onshore domestic manufacturing, supply chains, and good paying jobs, particularly in Republican run states due to their business-friendly environments. Pro-energy growth policies will directly support these objectives.
Really, does the US Legislature mean anything these days?