As the Senate slogged through a marathon vote this week on the Republican-led megabill, behind the scenes a group of GOP senators worked furiously to ease an assault on renewable energy.
They huddled on the floor, deep in conversation, or were shunted off to leadership offices to hammer out details. At one point, Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) emerged and told reporters he was “deep into the energy part” of the bill.
In the end, their victory was partial: out was a surprise tax on wind and solar energy, in was a slightly more generous timeline phase-out for tax credits.
The Republicans also succeeded in changing language that many felt would make it all but impossible for renewable projects to claim production credits. But they were not able to alter many other rollbacks, including one that immediately terminates a subsidy for home solar.
Curtis, who emerged as one of the key players in the talks, said he implored Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) to salvage some semblance of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
“I’m grateful to Leader Thune and Finance Chair Crapo for including my changes to the energy credits — key for business certainty and for Utah’s energy future,” Curtis, who founded the Conservative Climate Caucus while in the House, said in a statement.
Others leading the effort included Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa — a state that is a leader in wind production — as well as Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who won a ransom’s share, including food nutrition changes for her vote. All had previously said they were concerned with earlier versions of the bill and wanted to see changes.
After more than 24 hours of procedural and amendment votes that ended in Vice President JD Vance breaking a 50-50 tie Tuesday on final passage, H.R. 1, is now in the House’s hands.
The outcome there is unclear. While the chamber is expected to vote on the bill Wednesday, many conservatives were enraged by the more lenient renewable tax credit language.
Among the big wins for renewables was the removal of the proposed excise tax on wind and solar projects, which many saw as a death sentence for those industries.
Another victory went to projects that break ground 12 months after the bill’s enactment, or that are “placed in service” (plugged into the grid) by the end of 2027.
Such projects would be eligible for tax credits. Previous language was stricter, awarding credits only for projects placed in service by the end of 2027.
The last-minute changes also give wind and solar more time to comply with standards that restrict the credits for projects with certain amounts of parts from China and other U.S. adversaries; previously, wind and solar had to comply immediately. Their deadline is now the end of 2025.
Murkowski was a key swing vote for Republicans; her “yes” vote ultimately secured the passage of the megabill. She told reporters that her decision was “agonizing” because of cuts to Medicaid in particular, and asked the House to improve the legislation before passing it.
“My sincere hope is that this is not the final product. This bill needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the President’s desk. We need to work together to get this right,” she said in a statement.
The House changing the bill again, however, could roll back Murkowski’s wins on energy. She cited the changes to wind and solar credits in her comments.
“I also co-led the Senate effort to restore a slightly longer phase-out for wind and solar tax credits while deleting a punitive excise tax targeting them,” she wrote in a statement.
Grassley similarly amplified his role in negotiations over the energy credits. His office said he “secured an important victory for the wind and solar industries.” Grassley has long been a champion of wind energy.
Ernst, however, did not mention her role in energy negotiations in a statement following the vote. She was the lead sponsor of an amendment on the credits that didn’t come up during the marathon voting session. Instead, leaders opted to tweak the bill in a broad amendment before the final roll call.
Curtis’ office said he secured the return of the “start of construction” standard to the bill. He also worked with Murkowski, Grassley and Ernst on removing the excise tax, which he told reporters Monday was “a really sloppy approach.”
While the changes were marginally positive for wind and solar construction, the megabill’s latest iteration ultimately ends the tax credits for future projects, carving them out of the technology-neutral clean energy credits from the 2022 climate law.
The budget package would also immediately terminate tax credits for those installing residential forms of clean energy, like solar panels.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a moderate, cited the energy provisions as a reason why she voted against the bill.
“The tax credits that energy entrepreneurs have relied on should have been gradually phased out so as not to waste the work that has already been put into these innovative new projects and prevent them from being completed,” she said in a statement. “The bill should have also retained incentives for Maine families who choose to install heat pumps and residential solar panels.”
The Republican megabill remains a focus of ire from climate groups, with the League of Conservation Voters calling it the “most anti-environmental bill of all time.”
Scramble on new wind, solar tax
A catalyst for the last-minute negotiations were surprise revisions to the megabill released just before the Senate began a procedural vote over the weekend.
Among the changes was the new excise tax on wind and solar projects. It applied against all projects unless they could prove that their supply chains did not include materials from countries of concern like China.
It remains unclear how the excise tax originated. Numerous key Republican senators, including Crapo, said they did not know the tax’s origin or would not comment
Curtis suggested that it was an attempt to incentivize manufacturers to keep buying American parts, even as a domestic content bonus credit was phased out.
The provision had at least some supporters. Solar Energy Manufacturers for America (SEMA) backed the tax, but “only as a last ditch effort to protect our market,” said Mike Carr, the coalition’s executive director.
The group includes a number of companies that domestically build solar panels and other parts the industry uses, like First Solar, Heliene and Qcells.
SEMA advocated for a longer glide path for repealing tax credits, particularly the domestic content bonus credit that helps U.S. manufacturers.
“We had to grab the lifeline,” Carr said of backing the tax.
Trouble in the House?
House GOP leaders hope to hold a vote on the Senate’s bill Wednesday.
But the bill could be at risk, in part because renewable projects have a longer window to begin construction and still be eligible for tax credits, compared to the version the House passed. The Senate version, however, still tightens the timeline for project completion when compared to the House version.
A number of Republican House members have already expressed opposition to the upper chamber’s changes, including the clean energy provisions.
“The biggest reason why I’m likely to oppose this is that they totally gutted the ‘Green New Scam’ subsidies’ termination that we put in place in the House bill. They put it in a very last minute amendment,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told reporters Tuesday.
Republican Reps. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Keith Self of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina also said they have misgivings.
“The Senate’s [‘Big Beautiful Bill’] EXTENDS the Green New Scam. This is NOT what the American people voted for,” Self wrote on X.
Even if the House approves the Senate bill, sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk, the tax dispute could resurface. Republicans are eyeing more budget reconciliation bills to make fiscal policy without having to worry about the Senate filibuster.
Reporters Lisa Kashinsky and Calen Razor contributed.
This story also appears in Climatewire.
