By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. energy industry trade groups have launched a last-minute lobbying blitz to urge Congress members to spare a slew of former President Joe Biden’s clean energy tax credits from the chopping block in the Republican budget plan.
On Monday, the House Ways and Means committee proposed the phase-out or cancellation of several lucrative subsidies from Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. On the block are several related to wind and solar power, hydrogen, and other technologies meant to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Lawmakers will work over the next day or two to amend and pass their plans for the broader tax package.
Trade group Advanced Energy United, which represents a range of clean energy, transmission, technology and transportation companies including NRG, Sunrun, Enel and Microsoft, launched a national ad campaign targeting lawmakers in five states whose districts benefit from investments spurred by the IRA.
The ads, which specify how much a congressional district has received in IRA-generated private sector and manufacturing investments, will run until a final budget bill passes in the House. Speaker Mike Johnson wants the bill passed by May 26. AEU did not divulge total spending on the ads, but called it a “six-digit” campaign.
“Without these credits, American families will be worse off, and U.S. manufacturers, who have invested in domestic manufacturing, will be forced to shutter assembly lines, lay off workers, and move production abroad,” Advanced Energy United’s CEO Heather O’Neill said on Tuesday.
No Republicans voted for the IRA when it passed in 2022, yet districts and states led by Republicans accounted for 58% of new jobs created due to investments from the law, according to advocacy group Climate Power.
Meanwhile, dozens of hydrogen industry lobbyists hit Capitol Hill on Tuesday to urge lawmakers to salvage the federal 45V tax credit to promote hydrogen projects, which they say could support around 60,000 jobs per year between 2025 and 2035 and generate more than $12 billion in annual GDP.
The committee proposed to move the expiration of that tax credit from 2033 to 2026, making it impossible to develop longer-term projects.
In a letter to Johnson and Ways and Means chair Jason Smith, companies and trade groups including Cummins, EQT, the ports of Long Beach and Corpus Christi and the American Petroleum Institute “urgently request” that they save the credits or risk ceding an advantage to China, which has rapidly developed its own hydrogen industry.
Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, also urged member companies to pressure lawmakers to save tax credits, including the residential solar credit, which will be eliminated at year’s end. She also noted that other proposed changes could hamper investment in commercial solar, and urged people to sign up to the Solar Powers America campaign, which generates letters to Congress members.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; additional reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by David Gregorio)
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