Senate rushes reconciliation bill that launches new attacks on clean energy

The Senate voted 51 to 49 to move the Finance Committee’s updated draft of the reconciliation bill to debate. The new iteration not only strikes tax incentives for solar energy but also adds a new tax on future development.

The Senate draft released on June 16 cuts the 48E Investment Tax Credit for solar and wind energy projects, which covers 30% of installed system costs. The credit was reduced to 60% of its value by the end of 2026, 20% of its value by the end of 2027, and all projects beginning construction by 2028 were ineligible for the credit. The latest version raises the bar by incentivizing only those facilities that begin producing electricity before the end of 2027.

“This reconciliation bill proposal isn’t just misguided — it’s a direct attack on American energy, American workers, and American consumers. It guts the very industries that are lowering electricity bills, revitalizing U.S. manufacturing, and building more new power capacity than every other energy technology combined,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

Elon Musk shared on Linkedin that “This would be incredibly destructive to America,” in response to a post that included Cleanview’s chart (shown above). Michael Thomas, founder and CEO of Cleanview, a clean energy data analysis platform, shared in his post that the United States will need about 450 GW of new electricity by 2030 to meet rising demand. “And the Senate is about to vote on a bill that could wipe out ~500 GW of potential energy generation capacity.”

The bill also heightens uncertainty with a new tax on some wind and solar projects with obscure language (Page 564 at line 8) about facilities built with materials from a foreign entity of concern (FEOC):

APPLICABLE FACILITIES.—The term ‘qualified facility’ shall not include any applicable facility (as defined in subsection (e)(4)(B)) for which construction begins after June 16, 2025, if the construction of such facility includes any material assistance from a prohibited foreign entity (as defined in section 7701(a)(52)).’

“These new taxes will strand hundreds of billions of dollars in current investments, threaten energy security, undermine growth in domestic manufacturing and land hardest on rural communities who would have been the greatest beneficiaries of clean energy investment,” said Jason Grumet, CEO of American Clean Power Association.

The Republicans that voted against moving the bill forward are Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Tillis released a statement saying ““I will always do what is in the best interest of North Carolina, even when that puts me at odds with my own party. When Senate leaders of my party presented this bill, I did what every American should expect from their U.S. Senator: I worked to gather the facts and comprehensively analyze what the impact would be on the people I swore an oath to represent.”

According to analysis by Cleanview, Thomas estimates that the the bill would raise electricity prices in North Carolina by ~20% over the next 5 years.

“Under current law, North Carolina is expected to see 28 GW of new solar and wind capacity by 2035–enough to power more than 8 million homes,” Thomas said. “Under the bill being considered by the Senate this weekend, that number would be slashed in half, to just over 14 GW. That’s because the bill would phase out the Investment Tax Credit and the Production Tax Credit (PTC) 7 years early.”

Proponents of the bill are eyeing the President’s request to have the bill on his desk by July 4^th; however, opponents believe the draft was moved forward in haste and released after midnight on a Friday night t avoid the watchful eye of the American people.

The bill will cause the loss of 2 million jobs, Schumer said in a press conference, “and maybe more because we hear they might make the clean energy provisions even worse. They want jam it through, they don’t want the American people to know what’s in it.”

As Americans learn more about this bill, the more they are against it, Schumer said. “Republicans are scrambling and rushing, they know their bill is terrible, they don’t want Americans to know what’s in it.” He added, “Republicans should listen to their own words: Show some backbone, ignore fake deadlines, stop the rush job.”

Schumer called for a full reading of the nearly 1,000-page text, which is expected to take approximately 15 hours. After that the Senate is expected to vote, and if approved, must be reconciled with the House version of the bill; which narrowly passed 215 to 214. Due to the narrow win, the language of the bill may continue to change.

“Any Senator who votes for this bill is voting for higher energy prices, a weaker economy, and a less secure America. And they’ll have to answer for it when families open their utility bills, when workers lose their paychecks, and when voters head to the polls,” said Hopper. “We urge lawmakers to think very carefully about the future they’re voting for because this bill doesn’t reform our energy system, it sabotages it.”

Cleanview’s Thomas reached out to Senate staffers and learned that the following Senators are most concerned about the anti-renewable provisions:
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
Sen. Jerry Moran (Kansas)
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine)
Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa)
Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa)
Sen. John Curtis (Utah)
Sen. Bill Cassidy (Louisiana)

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