May 22, 2025
🍻 Happy Thursday! That was a long night, but with the recess ahead we're publishing only Tuesday and Thursday next week, barring any breaking news.
😢 Programming note from Nick: This is my last day as an author of Pro Energy Policy. I'm leaving Axios after tomorrow to spend the summer going on a very long hike.
- Thanks, everyone, for reading and subscribing over the past 2½ years. It's been a hell of a run, but you're in super-capable hands with Daniel.
⭕️ Today's last song is Nick's sendoff tune: "Tweezer Reprise" by Phish.
1 big thing: Defense of IRA shifts to Senate
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 Daniel. "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."
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."
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.
The bottom line: "A window still exists for advocacy, but it's getting smaller and will close as soon as July 4th," Moyer said.
2. New Mexico firm has high hydrogen hopes
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — One company in the hydrogen supply chain here shows how the Trump administration's funding pullbacks could upend the climate tech ecosystem.
Why it matters: Pajarito Powder, nestled in a small facility in the city's north end, is confident it can survive the Trump administration's cuts. But future federal policy will help determine whether its domestic market emerges.
- The company seeks to be a preeminent U.S. supplier in a supply chain now largely based in Asia and Europe. It's exactly the kind of manufacturing the IRA and infrastructure law were designed to scale up.
- "It's an industry that moved offshore many, many, many years ago, and we're one of the first to try to bring it back to the United States," said Michele Ostraat, the company's chief operations officer.
The big picture: Pajarito manufactures a fine black powder used as a catalyst in fuel cells and the electrolyzers that split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen through a process called electrolysis.
- It grew out of technology from Los Alamos National Laboratory. The company recently got a nearly $20 million grant from the Energy Department to scale up production.
- For now, DOE is still paying invoices. But the future of the agency's hydrogen hubs and other booster programs is critical, the company's executives told Nick.
- "As those hubs get implemented, it's going to create additional demand for both the production and the consumption of hydrogen, and that means that ultimately, our customers then are going to need to have catalysts that we'll be able to source for them," said Tom Stephenson, Pajarito's board chair.
The bottom line: The Trump administration may upend the incentive-driven U.S. market for climate tech. We might see manufacturers who are already here look to markets abroad.
3. Catch me up: CRAs and more
🚗 1. Procedure on CRAck: Senate Republicans voted to give the parliamentarian the end-around and passed a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn California's car emissions standards.
- Votes on other California regulatory waivers are coming soon.
👀 2. GAO figure: The Transportation Department violated federal law in suspending the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, according to GAO.
- "This legal decision affirms what we've long known: the president is breaking the law to block funding Congress passed on a bipartisan basis and that is owed to the American people — simply because he disagrees with it," Sen. Patty Murray said in a statement.
😢 3. Rest in peace: Rep. Gerry Connolly, the longtime Virginia congressman who co-founded the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, died yesterday. He was 75.
- "We are deeply saddened to lose such a steadfast leader and champion for our environment," LCV president Pete Maysmith said in a statement.
✅ Thank you for reading Axios Pro Policy, and thanks to editors Chuck McCutcheon and David Nather and copy editor Brad Bonhall.
View archive




