Illustration: Natalie Peeples / Axios
The renewable energy industry is doubling down on aligning itself with President Trump's energy priorities.
Why it matters: The IRA picture looks grim after House Ways and Means advanced text on Wednesday that included a phaseout of the tech-neutral electricity investment and production tax credits.
- But solar and geothermal executives insist they haven't lost support from more than two dozen Republicans in both chambers who penned letters in defense of the credits.
Driving the news: Zero-carbon energy developers are swarming the Hill to press Republicans to reverse proposed cuts to IRA tax credits.
- "We want to make sure that House Republicans, when they're marking up bills, take into account the Trump administration and [Energy] Secretary [Chris] Wright are big advocates of geothermal technology," said Bryant Jones, executive director of Geothermal Rising.
- Geothermal companies heard from multiple Republican offices that they're open to carving out geothermal from those cuts, Jones said.
- Alternatively, the credits' phaseout should be extended to 2035 for geothermal, given how long it can take to connect new projects to the grid, he said.
Solar and storage executives have also been meeting with GOP offices to express their concerns with "foreign entity of concern" language. They said it renders incentives for manufacturing and power production and investment unusable.
- The language constitutes "complete death" for solar projects currently relying on other parts of the world for minerals and components, Sandhya Ganapathy of EDP Renewables told reporters today.
- "It's incredibly premature to even characterize [the committee-approved cuts] as losing anybody."
At least one Republican, Rep. Dan Newhouse, is advocating against phasing out the 45U nuclear production tax credit "at a time when the country is facing unprecedented power demands."
- "Secretary Wright has made clear the need to expand our nuclear fleet, and that cannot be done without certainty in our tax code," Newhouse said in a statement to Axios.
- The reconciliation text "will handicap our ability to build new nuclear power plants while China is deploying small modular reactors," he said.
Between the lines: House Republicans aren't slowing down the reconciliation train ahead of a Budget Committee markup of the full bill on Friday.
- But the Senate will likely seek changes at the proposed FEOC standards and repeal of tax credit transferability.
- Sen. Lisa Murkowski told reporters today that the debate about the IRA credits is "still evolving."
