July 2025 – Page 10 – This is Not Cool

Senator Elissa Slotkin is a rising star in the Democratic Party, and was selected to deliver the response to this year’s State of the Union address from the President.
Slotkin held a blue seat in a state that went red last year, after winning consecutive terms as a congressperson in a Mid Michigan swing district.
She has a background as a CIA intelligence analyst, and seems like a good fit in a long line of solid Michigan senators, going back to Phil Hart, Carl Levin, Debbie Stabenow, and Gary Peters, who will be retiring after this term.
Clearly she is seizing the moment as a bit of a leadership vacuum exists in an evolving Democratic Party. The clips here are from a longer speech delivered last week at the Center for American Progress.

At top, her take on climate. “We need to expand the coalition working to mitigate climate change.” She knocks what she calls “purity tests” on the part of climate activists – something we have seen in recent elections, as far left climate activists trashed Kamala Harris and the Biden administration for not doing enough, despite the most comprehensive and effective program ever passed in the Inflation Reduction Act – thereby helping deliver the election for the fossil fuel industry.

Who snuck that in?

Politico:

Senate Republicans stepped up their attacks on U.S. solar and wind energy projects by quietly adding a provision to their megabill that would penalize future developments with a new tax.

That new tax measure was tucked into the more than 900-page document released late Friday that also would sharply cut the tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act for solar and wind projects. Those cuts to the IRA credits were added after a late-stage push by President Donald Trump to crack down further on the incentives by requiring generation projects be placed in service by the end of 2027 to qualify.

The new excise tax is another blow to the fastest-growing sources of power production in the United States, and would be a massive setback to the wind and solar energy industries since it would apply even to projects not receiving any credits.

“It’s a kill shot. This new excise tax on wind and solar is designed to fully kill the industry,” said Adrian Deveny, founder and president of policy advisory firm Climate Vision, who helped craft the climate law as a former policy director for Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer.

Analysts at the Rhodium Group said in an email the new tax would push up the costs of wind and solar projects by 10 to 20 percent — on top of the cost increases from losing the credits.

NBC News:

Tucked inside Republicans’ massive domestic policy bill is an excise tax for wind and solar projects, a provision that came as a surprise not just to the renewable energy industry, but also to numerous senators who are crafting the legislation.

In a twist, Republican senators insist they don’t know how or why the tax was inserted into the bill they’re rushing to pass. No senator is taking credit for or defending it. And at least one wants it removed.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the Budget Committee chairman, who released the 940-page bill, said he doesn’t know where that provision came from.

“It’s a secret, I guess,” Graham told NBC News on Monday evening. “I don’t know where it came from.”