Fossil fuel champions in Congress have long relished the opportunity to put an end to federal tax credits for renewable energy. Now, the anti-climate sentiment at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. gives them a real shot. Republican leaders are planning to get rid of some Biden-era clean energy spending to pay a small fraction of the multitrillion-dollar costs of extending 2017 tax cuts — a major piece of President Donald Trump’s fiscal agenda. But their efforts may clash with the interests of energy companies, big businesses and GOP districts throughout the country, Kelsey Brugger writes. Many energy incentives are in the Inflation Reduction Act, the climate bill signed into law by former President Joe Biden. The bulk of the tax subsidies meant to spur U.S.-based manufacturing of solar panels and advanced batteries has gone to GOP districts in the South and the West. There’s plenty at stake: job growth, billions of dollars in technology investment, global competitiveness with China’s green tech leaders and utility bills for everyday Americans. That may not matter in Trump’s Washington. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told Kelsey that lawmakers are making progress on the question of how to tackle IRA clean energy subsidies in one big budget reconciliation bill. “People like myself would like to see all of them go away,” Scalise said. “Our conference is going to be going through each one of them, and making those decisions as we get to reconciliation.” Businesses aren’t waiting: The Edison Electric Institute told Power Switch that representatives from more than 40 electricity companies are on Capitol Hill to discuss “the long-term impacts that sweeping changes in existing tax policy would have on energy security.” Boston-based nonprofit Ceres was also shepherding more than 70 companies and investors around the Capitol complex today and Thursday to advocate for keeping incentives in place. One executive said there’s an intersection with oil and gas — at least for his company. Vikrum Aiyer, head of global climate policy at Heirloom, a direct-air carbon capture company, suggested Republican allies aren’t hard to find. The technology "taps into the expertise and the infrastructure of the oil and gas industry, the oil and gas workforce, and frankly benefits from the tax credits that have been enshrined on Capitol Hill with a history of being quite bipartisan,” he said. California-based Sierra Nevada Brewing has invested heavily in solar and on-site energy generation for microturbines, which rely on natural gas as well as biogas. “We’ve taken advantage of these credits,” said Mandi McKay, the company’s sustainability officer. “And other businesses like us have done the same.”
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