Vulnerable House Repubs Knees Go Wobbly on Clean Energy Cuts

Hopes for courage and integrity from Republican House members – who wrote to Speaker Mike Johnson months ago in defense of clean energy tax incentives – faded when all of the signers voted in favor of the brutal cuts in the “Big Beautiful Bill”, so called, that now is before the Senate.

Now, some of them, especially those in vulnerable districts, are asking for Senators to do the job where they failed

Politico:

Thirteen House Republicans are urging Senate leaders to “substantially and strategically” improve clean energy tax credit provisions in the House-passed megabill.

Led by Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), the lawmakers said they remain “deeply concerned by several provisions” that would aggressively phase down incentives from the Democrats’ 2022 climate law and add strict new supply chain requirements. Such steps could jeopardize billions of dollars in investments and thousands of jobs, companies and trade groups have said.

The letter Friday from Kiggans and Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Juan Ciscomani of Arizona and Andrew Garbarino of New York, among others, comes as Senate negotiators work on their version of the GOP’s tax cut, energy and border spending budget package.

“We believe the Senate now has a critical opportunity to restore common sense and deliver a truly pro-energy growth final bill that protects taxpayers while also unleashing the potential of U.S. energy producers, manufacturers, and workers,” the House lawmakers wrote in the letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo.

Most lawmakers on the letter supported the House megabill despite the tax credit dispute. Garbarino slept through the early morning vote but said he would have supported the bill.

The new letter calls for changing a provision that would cut off tax breaks for projects that haven’t started construction within 60 days of the megabill’s enactment.

Authors also want to change “highly restrictive and onerous” requirements for foreign entities of concern and revive the practice known as “transferability,” which allows project sponsors to transfer credits to a third party.

Even though the House-passed bill rolled back incentives for renewable energy and hydrogen, it spared credits for nuclear and biofuels.

“Since January, over $14 billion in energy projects have been canceled or delayed, with $4.5 billion scrapped in April alone,” the House Republicans wrote. “Without a clear signal from Congress encouraging continued investments and offering business certainty as these provisions are phased out, project cancellations will continue to snowball.”

The House GOP effort will complement work already underway by Senate Republicans like Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis to ease restrictions on the tax credits contained in the House bill.