House and Senate Republicans are divided over how hard a blow their megabill should strike against the clean energy tax credits at the heart of Joe Biden’s climate law.
Hundreds of projects — overwhelmingly in Republican districts — hang in the balance.
An analysis by POLITICO identified 794 wind farms, solar plants, battery storage facilities and other clean electricity generation projects that have not yet begun construction and could be at risk of losing two crucial tax breaks if the House prevails in rolling back Democrats’ 2022 climate law. A competing proposal from the Senate Finance Committee would make a less aggressive attack on the law’s incentives — but even then, hundreds of those projects could still lose all or part of the tax breaks if they don’t move fast enough to start construction.
The ultimate shape of the Republicans’ “big beautiful bill” stands to have a major impact on the wave of clean energy projects that Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act helped launch across the country, with implications for jobs, climate change and the United States’ ability to meet the power demands of technologies such as artificial intelligence. Clean energy makes up the majority of new power capacity expected to be added to the nation’s electric grid during the next five years, according to a POLITICO analysis of data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
