Congress Begins Repeal of Clean Energy Tax Credits With ‘Sledgehammer

Congress began tearing down the most consequential climate policy it had ever passed as torrents from a 1,000-mile-long atmospheric river lashed Washington, D.C.

The worst impacts of Tuesday’s storm were far up the Potomac River. Any concerns about how the United States would grapple with the increasingly intense weather of a warming world receded to background noise, less audible than the rain pelting the Capitol dome.

Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted to repeal clean energy incentives early Wednesday after an all-night session marking up legislation they titled “One Big, Beautiful Bill.” The $4.9 trillion package would extend the tax cuts passed in President Donald Trump’s first term and add a few more, such as eliminating taxes on tips, while ramping up border security spending.

A portion of the funds to pay for the bill—about 11 percent, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation’s tally—would come from eradicating tax credits passed in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 that were meant to spur a U.S. transition to cleaner energy.

Billions of dollars of private investment have poured into hundreds of new electric vehicle and battery plants and other clean energy projects in the wake of the IRA’s passage, with much of the boom occurring in Republican-led states. As President Joe Biden’s climate team left the White House, they expressed faith that this bipartisan impact would give the IRA durability, even though it had passed Congress with solely Democratic votes. The House Ways and Means Committee decisively put this notion to rest with its 389-page draft.

“Make no mistake, this bill takes a sledgehammer approach,” a coalition of environmental groups wrote in a letter to committee leaders. The legislation “guts America’s clean energy production, raises costs for families, worsens air pollution, and eliminates hundreds of thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs – all to fund massive tax breaks for billionaires.”

The outnumbered Democrats on the committee focused their fight on the legislation’s other impacts—like its massive cuts to Medicaid and food assistance—with little or no mention of the energy tax credits. Republicans maintained that lowered taxes benefited the vast majority of ordinary Americans.

“The One Big Beautiful Bill is the key to making America great again,” said Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. “This bill wasn’t drafted by special interests or K Street lobbyists. It was drafted by the American people in communities across the country.” Smith talked about mothers, farmers and owners of small businesses who lauded the tax cuts during field hearings committee Republicans held last year. But certainly big business lobbyists also liked the package, including the American Petroleum Institute, which called it a plan “that supports American energy leadership.”

This committee vote is…