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Clean energy tax credits approved under the Biden administration are under debate in the Senate. House Republicans voted to gut these programs, but not all of their fellow Republicans in the Senate are on board. NPR's Barbara Sprunt has more.
BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: President Trump has long talked about his frustrations with clean energy provisions signed into law by President Biden in the Inflation Reduction Act. Here he is at an April rally in Michigan.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You know what I don't give approval to? Those stupid windmills that go round and round and round.
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TRUMP: And we've ended the green new scam.
SPRUNT: The House passed a bill that would accomplish much of President Trump's agenda, like extending the 2017 tax cuts. To help pay for that, it takes an axe to clean energy credits. The bill would roll back incentives for wind, solar and hydrogen power, phase out consumer tax credits for new electric vehicles and terminate some credits for projects that begin construction more than 60 days after the bill's enactment. But it would also impact a lot of business happening in primarily red states.
BOB KEEFE: If you look at the total investments by business, 80% of them have gone into Republican congressional districts. So this isn't happening in California or New York. These aren't, you know, tree huggers or environmentalists getting hurt. It's workers in red states.
SPRUNT: That's Bob Keefe, Executive Director of E2, a nonpartisan pro-environment business group that's been tracking clean energy projects for over two years.
KEEFE: We've seen $14 billion worth of new factories and other projects - you know, clean energy, electric vehicle-related plants, solar projects, wind projects, battery projects - canceled in America because of the uncertainty over this bill.
SPRUNT: In April, four Republican senators sent a letter to Senate leadership saying a significant repeal of credits in place from the IRA could jeopardize job creation in the energy sector. Utah's John Curtis was one of them.
JOHN CURTIS: I think it's really important that Senate Republicans - and, I wish, House Republicans - look at this not from the standpoint of it's in the IRA, therefore it's bad, but rather, what is in the country's best interest and what is the best tax policy?
SPRUNT: He said credits should be analyzed individually to evaluate merit and that if credits are eliminated, how they go is important, both for consumers and for businesses.
CURTIS: If we're closing these down, let's just do it in a way that takes into account those employees at those businesses, the banks that loaned on those projects and make sure we have business certainty.
SPRUNT: He says his phone has been ringing off the hook with people concerned about the Senate's next steps.
CURTIS: I would say more than we can meet with.
SPRUNT: Senators aren't only hearing from lobbyists and industry leaders. They're also getting entreated by their Republican counterparts in the House.
ROB BRESNAHAN: We had some good conversations with a handful of senators.
SPRUNT: That's Congressman Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania, one of 13 House Republicans who are urging the Senate to substantially change the energy provisions that they voted for.
BRESNAHAN: You know, I'm OK with the phase-out but giving enough runway for projects that have already been committed and pledged to be completed before having the rug ripped out from, essentially, underneath them.
SPRUNT: Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, a Democrat, said he's optimistic that progress is being made among his GOP colleagues.
RON WYDEN: What I'm doing is going literally senator by senator of those who support innovation or, you know, understand that clean energy helps to create more competition and choice, which is also a kind of Republican idea.
SPRUNT: But in Congress, you make one group happy, and it crosses another group's red line. Once the Senate passes the bill, it then goes back to the House, and some members there have already said if the Senate waters down those clean energy rollbacks, they'll vote no. Barbara Sprunt, NPR News, the Capitol.
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