Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
The House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday morning advanced a sweeping package of cuts to the Inflation Reduction Act's clean energy tax credits.
Why it matters: It's an opening bid in the GOP effort to peel back the 2022 climate law.
- Ways and Means' proposal wouldn't outright repeal every incentive, but it would drastically curtail them.
Driving the news: The committee approved the tax portion of the GOP reconciliation bill in a party-line 26-19 vote after a marathon markup that dragged on more than 12 hours overnight.
- Rep. Mike Thompson proposed an amendment that would have struck IRA incentive rescissions, but it failed 19-25.
- Democrats forced dozens of other amendment votes last night and in the early morning hours.
Zoom in: The bill would phase out the IRA's production and investment incentives and change how they're implemented to base eligibility on when projects come onto the power grid — making them much more difficult to claim.
- It would also eliminate transferability and add anti-China language that threatens to make the credits essentially unusable.
- The EV tax credit would also be eliminated next year, though Republicans did include a proposed extension of the 45Z clean fuel credit.
What's next: It heads to the floor as committees finish up the rest of the reconciliation package.
- But we could see efforts on the House floor — and in the Senate — to change the IRA provisions.
- That's not to mention ongoing divides among Republicans on how the tax title handles SALT.
