A sign in a Senate hallway. Photo: Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg via Getty Images
The House-passed reconciliation bill is likely to face changes from IRA-friendly GOP senators — but the climate law's supporters are still warning against complacency.
Why it matters: "This is a real wake-up call for the clean energy industry," said Chris Moyer, a former staffer for Sen. Cory Booker and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Catch up quick: House deficit hawks won significant rollbacks to IRA energy credits in the Ways and Means package marked up last week and even deeper cuts in an amendment unveiled last night.
- For IRA backers, the biggest concerns include a sunset of 2028 for the tech-neutral electricity production and investment tax credits and "foreign entities of concern" standards that renewable energy developers have called unworkable.
- Nuclear will retain the tech-neutral credits and transferability for projects that begin construction by the end of 2028. But most new reactors aren't expected to move forward until the early 2030s, said ClearPath Action CEO Jeremy Harrell.
What they're saying: A few hours after the House passed the bill, Senate Republicans who signed a letter last month defending the IRA credits were circumspect about specifics.
- "I think it's fair to say nuclear is a strong Republican priority," Sen. John Curtis told reporters.
- "I do support a portion of the IRA tax credits" related to agricultural production and sustainable aviation fuel, Sen. Jerry Moran told Axios. "The energy components of that are very important to my state."
- And Sen. Thom Tillis, who said he won't support cutting off ongoing projects from tax credits, told reporters: "We've got some work to do there to smooth it out."
The other side: "There's a long way to go," said Sen. Ron Wyden, architect of those IRA credits.
- "Areas like geothermal and nuclear, the tax credits that I wrote are very popular with Republicans and industries and companies," Wyden told reporters.
Reality check: Energy industries lobbied the Hill for months — reaching fever pitch in the last few weeks — to little avail.
- The bill is "insufficient to support energy producers to meet growing demand," Harrell said.
- Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, a group influential with Republicans, expressed disappointment that the "energy tax credits were repealed and substantially cut."
- "We hope changes will be made to address and protect these important tax credits" in the Senate, CRES president Heather Reams said in a statement.
Between the lines: The industry took "too much solace in a few letters from House Republicans who, at the end of the day, voted to gut the very tax credits they claimed to value so dearly," Moyer said in a statement.
- So far, House Republicans who signed those letters haven't expressed any regrets.
- Rep. Jen Kiggans — who led an effort to try to find a compromise to making the credits accessible — said there was more good than bad in the bill and that she hoped the Senate would lift the House's IRA cuts.
- "Rather than responsibly phasing out clean electricity incentives, the bill abruptly ends support," Kiggans said.
The bottom line: "A window still exists for advocacy, but it's getting smaller and will close as soon as July 4th," Moyer said.
