The U.
S. House of Representatives has given the green light to a sweeping reconciliation bill, a significant stride in forwarding President Donald Trump's legislative agenda.
This move sets the stage for the Senate to potentially dismantle former President Joe Biden's climate bill and the Democrats' green energy program.
The approved package imposes stricter regulations on new Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tax credits for solar and wind energy. However, it fell short of completely abolishing the subsidies, as Republican lawmakers reached a compromise to push the bill forward.
The reconciliation bill propels some of the Trump administration's energy priorities, but the Senate could further slash subsidies if Republicans can summon the political resolve, energy policy experts informed the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Frank Lasee, president of Truth in Energy and Climate, communicated to the DCNF that "The Big Beautiful Bill seems to eliminate at least 50% of the $1.9 trillion from the Democrats Green New Scam. Ending subsidies for wind, solar, and batteries will help prevent our electric rates from tripling, like they have in Europe due to their version of the green new scam." He added, "This is a step in the right, free-market energy direction. We hope the Senate can do more. It could be better, but it must pass."
A last-minute revision to the bill introduced language that accelerates the phase-out of tax breaks for wind, solar, and battery storage to 2028, the final year of Trump's term in office. As reported by The Washington Post and Alexander Stevens, manager of policy and communications at the Institute for Energy Research, the House version of the package that passed on Thursday would terminate approximately $677.8 billion worth of tax credits. This is about half of the projected overall cost of the IRA subsidies that were under consideration.
Several prominent green energy trade groups, including the American Clean Power Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association, have urged the Senate to reject the House's more stringent approach to reforming IRA tax credits. Interestingly, the House bill preserved subsidies for nuclear energy, a type of low-carbon energy that the Trump administration has consistently supported.
Despite pleas from solar and wind technology advocates for the Senate to reverse course and save the IRA subsidies, some lawmakers and energy policy experts argue that the House bill did not go far enough in terminating key tax credits in Biden's signature climate bill.
Republican Texas Representatives Chip Roy and Keith Self both endorsed the reconciliation package on Thursday. However, both lawmakers expressed that the IRA reforms contained in the passed bill are too weak in statements explaining their votes.
Adam Michel, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, told the DCNF that he views the House version of the reconciliation bill as a "missed opportunity" for Republicans. "Overall, the bill is still not a fiscally conservative product and will expand the deficit. That's unfortunate. Republicans should be expecting more than they did," Michel said. "It's a massive missed opportunity, but hopefully the Senate will correct it."
Despite no Republican in either chamber voting for the IRA in 2022, some GOP Senators are now voicing support for some of the Biden laws tax credits. Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, John Curtis of Utah, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Jerry Moran of Kansas wrote to Senate Majority Leader John Thune on April 10, arguing that "a wholesale repeal, or the termination of certain individual credits, would create uncertainty, jeopardizing capital allocation, long-term project planning, and job creation in the energy sector and across our broader economy."
With the GOP currently holding 53 seats in the Senate, four defecting Republicans could potentially derail the reconciliation package.
Steve Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, told the DCNF, "It looks like about 50% of the $1.2 trillion in Green New Scam waste fraud and abuse has been cut out. Possibly the Senate can do more. If it seems like 'half a loaf' it is, but the Big Beautiful Bill must pass."
Sterling Burnett, director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute, told the DCNF that the House version of the bill was good enough given political constraints. "Negotiators made progress in the big, beautiful bill, cutting additional hundreds of billions in IRA green spending costs in part by shortening the deadlines for project commencement," he wrote.
"Although I wish all the boondoggle spending on damaging, expensive, intermittent, wind and solar and carbon capture storage had ended entirely and the provisions for limited federal land sales had remained in the bill, it is to their credit that Republicans didnt let the perfect be the enemy of the good."
The American Clean Power, Solar Energy Industries Association, Roys office, and Selfs office did not respond for comment, and the White House referred the DCNF to Trumps Truth Social post and the briefing on the matter.
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