The U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Big, Beautiful Bill” 215 to 214.
Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) called the bill “unworkable legislation” that is “willfully ignorant of the fact that deploying solar and storage is the only way the U.S. power grid can meet the demand of American consumers, businesses, and innovation.”
The report America’s solar industry is under threat found that the bill could jeopardize nearly 300 U.S.-based solar and storage factories and lead to the loss of 145,000 GWh of solar generation by 2030.
That solar generation is needed in the energy mix, as the electricity load in the United States is skyrocketing. A recent study conducted by PA Consulting for National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), “A Reliable Grid for an Electric Future,” forecasted a 300% rise in energy consumption by data centers alone. The NEMA report, as well as the SEIA report, found that an all-of-the-above approach will be needed to add energy to the grid fast enough to meet the demand.
If Congress cuts these incentives, SEIA said energy production will fall 145 TWh.
“America will not be able to meet demand, leading to blackouts and a surrender of the AI race,” Ross Hopper said.
“Americans’ electric bills will soar. Hundreds of factories will close. Hundreds of billions of dollars in local investments will vanish. Hundreds of thousands of people will lose their jobs. Families will lose the freedom to control their energy costs. And our electric grid will be destabilized,” Ross Hopper said.
The bill also threatens to undermine the manufacturing boom in the United States. In 2017, at the start of President Trump’s first term in office, the United States ranked 14th in the world for solar manufacturing. Today it is the third largest solar manufacturing economy in the world. Enough solar modules and polysilicon are now produced in the United States to serve the domestic market and cell and wafer production is on the rise.
(Read Solar cell production expected to double in the U.S. in less than 2 years.)
“If Congress does not change course, this legislation will upend an economic boom in this country that has delivered an historic American manufacturing renaissance, lower electric bills, hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs, and tens of billions of dollars of investments primarily to states that voted for President Trump,” Ross Hopper said.
“This unworkable legislation is willfully ignorant. If this bill becomes law, America will effectively surrender the AI race to China and communities nationwide will face blackouts.”
The bill next goes to the Senate, which is currently made up of 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and 2 Independents. Last month four moderate Republican U.S. senators wrote a letter of opposition to full-scale repeal the energy tax credits contained within the Inflation Reduction Act to incentivize renewable energy manufacturing, development and use.
“The solar and storage industry is ready to get to work with the U.S. Senate on a more thoughtful and measured approach to unleashing true American energy dominance to create a brighter future for all Americans.”
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I hope all solar fields and wind farms come to a quick halt. There is nothing green about them except the money that changes hands. They destroy our lands, people living nearby lose their property values. There are better ways.
I understand there are concerns about how solar fields and wind farms are developed and their local impacts. It’s true that any large infrastructure project…whether it’s renewable energy, highways, or traditional power plants…can affect nearby communities and land use. These issues deserve thoughtful discussion and community involvement.
However, saying there is “nothing green” about solar and wind energy overlooks some key facts. Unlike fossil fuels, they produce electricity without emitting carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, or nitrogen oxides…major contributors to air pollution and climate change. They also use significantly less water and have no fuel extraction impacts like oil drilling or coal mining.
Regarding property values, studies show mixed results. Some properties near poorly sited projects may be affected, while others are not. The solution isn’t to halt progress on clean energy, but to improve how these projects are planned, with more transparency, community input, and fair compensation.
If there are “better ways,” let’s talk about them…but they should be cleaner, more sustainable, and economically viable. The transition to renewable energy isn’t perfect, but it’s a vital part of solving our climate and energy challenges. Let’s aim forward for better…not backward.
As the expert in the room making a comment with zero facts, please show your work. If those statements are true, there should be no shortage of well documented facts you can provide us. Brief internet search on my end came up empty on actual data.
Thank you for your insight Brenda. Can you please share any specifics about your statement of “There are better ways” to meet the US energy demands beyond solar and wind energy? I would truly appreciate your ideas regarding alternative methods to meet this demand.
These scam artists are in a panic. They are about to lose their get rich schemes.
Solar along with wind turbines are destroying American Farmland.
Battery storage facilities are time bombs waiting to explode and pollute .
Stop all subsidies now.
I get that there are concerns about the impact of solar and wind farms—like land use and aesthetics—but it’s also important to recognize the huge benefits they bring. Unlike fossil fuels, they don’t pollute the air or contribute to climate change, and they provide long-term, renewable energy. Every energy source has trade-offs, but renewables are part of the solution to creating a cleaner, more sustainable future. We should focus on improving how they’re implemented, not shutting them down completely.
Not true at all. Educate yourself.
Putting up solar panels or wind farms, many of which are in otherwise unusable lands or waters at the tops of mountains and/or offshore, is the better way relative to fracking and drilling, which do destabilize the land, lower property values, and contaminate the aquifers that provide drinking water and water for farming.
That’s why the actual owners of the land, including small family farms, choose to ‘farm’ wind and solar! The cost to do so is also lowering as the relatively new technologies are making several developmental breakthroughs this year.
It’s also not profitable in the long term to keep extracting from more economically unviable sources. That’s why the Chinese, and even the Arab countries with naturally large oil deposits, and basically everywhere else besides Russia, which is also in decline, are investing so heavily in solar panel production and solar companies. It’s obvious to them with increasing energy demands their oil reserves will be depleted to the point the price will be sky high, and then they’ll also own the profitable renewable companies if short-sighted people cut the investment to American factories producing the equipment, because they ironically don’t want to see the energy being produced here, instead of imported from abroad.
Importing oil or destroying our lands by drilling and fracking it is not a better alternative, and not a viable alternative in the long term even from the perspective of American companies and jobs first drilling and fracking will inevitably become unprofitable as all the deposits profitable to extract are used up. Then we’ll be left without power, both geopolitically because we’ll be reliant on the countries with profitable oil reserves like Venezuela, and because the cost of oil and gas will be intolerable.
I totally agree with you, Brenda! I don’t want to look out my front windows and see a sea of photovoltaic solar panels! The construction of the 137 acre solar “farm” , across the street from our home, is on hold right now, but it was heartbreaking when they started destroying all the trees. There is a better way to produce the power that our country needs.
It appears that you’ve conflated fossil fuel extraction like strip coal mines with solar and wind. Please look into Agrovoltaics, the simultaneous use of land for agriculture such as sheep grazing and for photovoltaics. Rather than a negative impact solar fields and wind installations can be a tremendous financial boon to farmers and ranchers.
Thats simply untrue and absurd. Its not even worth rebutting its so wrong.
Thoughtful, so you think a nuclear plant, gas power plans or coal burning plant will be improve property values for neighborhoods bordering these. Not to speak of the health of people living nearby. I mean that are the alternatives.
That is what you are advocating for, or do you have something else in mind?
Maybe you think we do not need power plants, since at your house, the energy comes simply out of the wall, right?
Brenda and I love coal power pollution.
I ate too many fish that had mercury from coal burning plants. My wife ate the fish while pregnant.
My daughter had a grandma seizure at 6 months .
Today at 37 she can’t drive because of seizures .
I have trigeminal neuralgia.
Brenda says keep those fossil fuel plants going because there is no pollution or climate change.
You cannot talk science with folks that have no critical thinking.
Tell us these better ways…. I’ll wait….
Residential solar is the only way some homeowners can afford to power their homes. With the excessive increases year after year, cutting solar funding completely would be devastating to so many. Not just the people who use it to help cuts costs. Solar employs so many people and it would be a travesty to many if it doesn’t continue.
Solar PV is most effective close to the end user.
It is also effective for farms and ranches, co generation.
Crops and grazing.
Community substations powered by solar panels and battery storage is effective.
Solar PV is an awesome source of power that comes directly from the beautiful sunshine. We need to greatly expand its use to help decarbonize the atmosphere and give people a direct source of energy for their homes and businesses. It’s a path to energy independence that the the United States needs to support.
Solar is the future. To manufacture a solar panel it produces 10% of the GHG for the total lifespan of the panel vs the equivalent of a carbon based generation in its lifespan. Once built, the supply of “fuel” (sun rays) is free. No more tearing up the earth to get at a fuel supply.
Take this out of the bill. It’s another stupid move by these guys.
Facts are lowest cost of electricity is solar/wind plus BESS. All technology needed exists today. Natural gas plants can’t achieve the same cost today. Nest generation solar plus BESS gets better. Nuclear can’t achieve cost parity for electricity ever.
As someone who runs a 40 acre ranch off grid using primarily solar, some wind, and a propane back-up (~50hrs annually) in AZ. Lots of sun. I can attest to its savings; Reduced carbon footprint, no dependence on utilities. Meets my personal home needs. Should certainly be a part of the mix.
However,
Suggesting that our emerging power generation needs i,e AI Data centers, Crypto mining, High speed transit, etc… can be satisfied only using this technology is naive. Wind less so.
New nuclear, hydrogen fuel cell, and fusion have the most potential considering maximum output per resource input available known to available scientific understanding.
We need to balance our nations available capital investments across more than the EV/PV special interests. Where’s the lobby for that?