Four moderate Republican senators are calling for the preservation of green energy subsidies contained in former President Joe Biden’s signature climate bill, according to multiple reports.
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, John Curtis of Utah, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Jerry Moran of Kansas wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune urging him to preserve green energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Biden’s trillion-dollar climate bill, multiple outlets reported. The four senators join 21 House Republicans who have already signaled to House leadership that they also want to preserve certain IRA subsidies as the GOP gears up to pass a major reconciliation bill to advance its priorities.
“Many American companies have made substantial investments in domestic energy production and infrastructure based on the current energy tax framework,” the senators wrote, according to E&E News, which first reported on the letter. “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.”
“We urge a targeted, pragmatic approach that balances these priorities without undercutting current and future private-sector investments that are vital to domestic manufacturing, energy innovation, and affordability for American families,” the letter states, according to Bloomberg News. A full repeal of the IRA “could lead to significant disruptions for the American people and weaken our position as a global energy leader,” the lawmakers added.
The offices of Murkowski, Curtis, Tillis and Moran did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The senators did not specify to E&E News how far they are willing to go to get their preferred outcomes or which specific credits they are hoping to save from outright repeal given that the reconciliation bill is still a work in progress. The letter details a three-part test for the credits that the authors believe should be protected: if a type of tax credit “[spurs] new manufacturing and investment,” cuts utility bills for consumers and cements “certainty for businesses that have already made meaningful U.S. investments,” then senators believe that credit should be protected from being cut altogether, the outlet reported.
Congressional Republicans are currently working to put together their reconciliation bill, which many observers expect to be paid for in part by considerable cuts to the IRA. Some estimates, such as one recently published by the Cato Institute, project that the IRA will end up costing taxpayers several trillion dollars by 2050 if left in its current form.
“This is going to be hard. But what you have to do right now is you need to be making clear where some of your priorities are. And when you can get four people on the Republican side, you have the ability to have your voice heard perhaps a little more clearly,” Murkowski told E&E News, suggesting that a relatively small group of likeminded Republicans can exert influence over any forthcoming reconciliation package.
Tillis told the outlet he backs a “surgical” approach to the situation, keeping some credits untouched while phasing others out over time so as to not jolt business stakeholders.
Republican Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis would like to see IRA subsidies evaluated on an individual basis, highlighting her view that subsidies for wind energy create “perverse incentives,” she told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Lummis indicated that credits to support things like nuclear energy should be kept intact.
“I think we need to evaluate them on a case-by-case basis and see which ones are counterproductive,” Lummis told the DCNF. “I’m hopeful that as tax credits for energy are evaluated, it will be done on that kind of a case-by-case basis.”
Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming told the DCNF that “we’re looking at all the options” with respect to eliminating IRA green energy subsidies for the reconciliation bill.
Meanwhile, Republican West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice told E&E News that he is “completely” opposed to the IRA’s subsidies for green energy because those provisions distort energy markets against fossil fuels.
Adam Pack and Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report.
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