Musk, Tesla blast GOP plans to end clean energy tax credits in megabill
'Abruptly ending the energy tax credits would threaten America's energy independence and the reliability of our grid,' Tesla Energy, the company's solar and battery division, wrote on X.
The House-passed reconciliation package would repeal the Inflation Reduction Act's residential solar credit at the end of the year and rapidly phase down the clean electricity investment credit for all forms of generation except nuclear, disqualifying all but a few shovel-ready projects.
The bill would also terminate most credits for electric vehicles at the end of the year, disqualifying Teslas from a $7,500 incentive at a time when the company is experiencing declining sales and backlash linked to Musk's actions to gut the federal workforce.
Tesla's energy division has seen faster growth and higher profits than its vehicle business in recent years. Launched by Musk in 2015, it sells a range of solar and battery energy storage products to homeowners and utility companies.
Tesla Energy urged the Senate to support a 'sensible wind down' of the residential solar and the clean electricity investment credits, which it said would allow 'continued speedy deployment of over 60 [gigawatts] capacity per year to support AI and domestic manufacturing growth.'
Musk later amplified the message on his personal X account, along with a post from another user that said 'slashing solar energy credits is unjust.'
'There is no change to tax incentives for oil & gas, just EV/solar,' Musk wrote.
Musk said last month that he would step back from his government role to devote more time to running Tesla, and he confirmed Wednesday that his tenure as a 'special government employee' was coming to an end.
Backing the credits is a shift in position for Musk, who has previously supported ending all government subsidies, including those for EVs and the fossil fuel industry. He has contended that ending the EV credit would help Tesla because its competitors are more reliant on it.
The oil lobby has long disputed referring to its tax breaks as 'subsidies,' arguing they are in line with deductions claimed by all corporate taxpayers.
Musk also criticized the megabill's price tag earlier this week, saying he was 'disappointed' it increases the deficit and contradicts the cost-cutting efforts of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
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CNBC
16 minutes ago
- CNBC
Where is Nvidia? Chinese rivals take the limelight at major AI event in Shanghai
BEIJING — Less than two weeks after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's high-profile visit to Beijing, the U.S. chipmaker was conspicuous by its absence at China's biggest AI event of the year. Despite renewed hopes this month of selling its less advanced H20 chips to China again, Nvidia didn't have a booth at the World AI Conference that opened Saturday in Shanghai. The company declined CNBC's request for comment. In contrast, Nvidia's China rival, Huawei, had a large display — focused on its Ascend AI chips — near the venue entrance. Huang has called Huawei "one of the most formidable technology companies in the world," while warning that it could replace Nvidia in China if U.S. sticks with its export curbs on Beijing. The telecoms giant showed off for the first time the hardware for its computing system that links 384 Ascend chips together to power AI model training and use. Huawei is marketing the product as "Atlas 900 A3 SuperPoD." Earlier this year, research firm SemiAnalysis pointed out that even though one Ascend chip may be less powerful than Nvidia's most advanced Blackwell chip, an early look at a Huawei system similar to the one unveiled in Shanghai more than offsets the disparity by piling in five times more chips than Nvidia does in its GB200 computing system. But there's an efficiency cost as Huawei's systems require far more power than Nvidia's to operate, the report said. Huawei is far from being the only Chinese player in the complex supply chain for advanced chips. For example, semiconductor designer Moore Threads and startup Yunsilicon both had booths at the AI expo center in Shanghai. Many of the exhibitors from startups to giants such as Tencent and Alibaba showed off AI applications in robotics, smart glasses and translation apps. Overall, there was less talk at the expo about needing Nvidia to power their products. Internet tech company NetEase's Youdao business displayed a handheld bar device that uses AI to help students study material including that for college entrance exams. The device currently uses both AI based in the cloud and "edge" AI that runs on the device, said Gao Huituan, product manager of educational learning hardware at Youdao. Looking ahead, he said that new AI chips are becoming more power efficient and are able to support different types of products. While Nvidia's chips focus more on cloud computing power, "many domestically made, very excellent chip manufacturers are working on some edge devices," he said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. "Now everyone has relatively good computing power." Nvidia has become the world's most valuable company, riding on the demand for its chips that have been heled drive the latest generative AI breakthroughs. The company had to stop sales to China in April due to new U.S. restrictions, following tougher export controls over the last three years aimed at reducing China's AI capabilities and which have prevented Nvidia from selling its most advanced chips to the country. The company tailored the H20 for China, which Huang has said is a $50 billion market. Tesla, Google, Amazon Web Services and Siemens were among the U.S. and European companies with booths at the AI conference in Shanghai. Nvidia had a booth in Beijing earlier this month at an annual supply chain conference, which coincided with Huang's third visit to China this year and news that the U.S. will allow the chipmaker to resume sales of the H20 chips to China. But the company has not shared when shipments would begin or how many orders it had received from Chinese customers. "Nvidia is the model in (AI) GPU development for the short to medium term not just because of H20, but also because of flagship products like the GB300," Phelix Lee, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said in an emailed statement. "The return of H20 could help Nvidia to remain as the de facto standard in AI datacenter systems, especially when domestic alternatives are lurking." Beijing has been striving to boost tech self-sufficiency as it has faced U.S. restrictions accessing high-end tech. The country over the weekend also took another step toward promoting its AI standards globally. Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced plans for a global AI cooperation organization during a speech at Saturday's opening ceremony. The initial headquarters will likely be in Shanghai, state media said. The plans come just days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced an American action plan for AI that included calls to reduce alleged "woke" bias in AI models and support the deployment of U.S. tech overseas.
Fast Company
17 minutes ago
- Fast Company
What content strategy looks like in the age of AI
There's an air of panic in the media world. The specter of AI has been looming large for a couple of years now, but the threat now appears to be solidifying. Publishers are reporting that search traffic is in free fall, and there's overwhelming evidence that AI chatbots give very little in terms of referrals. What to do about 'Google Zero' has gone from a theoretical destination to a reality that the media world must contend with. Of course, panicking is never a good strategy. But pivoting can be, and there's been no shortage of that lately. Both Wired and The Verge announced this week a stronger push into newsletters, one of the more reliable ways to connect directly with readers. When Business Insider recently announced layoffs, it also said it would invest in live events. And even publishers that already charge for subscriptions are doubling down on them: Newsweek will launch new types for both consumers and businesses, and The Guardian now has a new, cheaper tier for readers who want to opt out of personalized ads. While AI may be the impetus behind a lot of these changes, they're all directionally pushing toward building direct relationships with audience members. That is smart, but at a more basic level, they're appealing to human desires that go beyond just getting information—a task AI fulfills very effectively. Offerings like newsletters, memberships, and events give a sense of belonging, encourage reading habits through consistency, and emphasize voice—either that of the brand or the individual writer. Within all this is the beginnings of a post-Google content strategy for media. But really, it's only half a strategy because it only accounts for humans. Much of internet activity in the future will be the result of bots, whether they're hoovering up data to inform AI models or acting as agents on behalf of individual users. Data from TollBit indicates bot crawling is already comparable to what the big (non-AI) search engines do—when everyone has their own AI agent, I would wager it will be the majority. Any forward-looking content strategy needs to take into account both humans and machines. The new organic audience Let's start with the people. A few months ago, I hosted a webinar on the types of content that are most resilient to AI summarization. AI does a great job of summarizing news, but it struggles with voice and unique perspectives. The consequence: If you want good opinion and analysis, you'll need to click through. Visual and interactive content is poorly conveyed by AI. And because AI is well known to hallucinate sometimes, anything that might inform a crucial decision for a reader—like context for health, legal, or financial decisions—will likely motivate readers to check the original source. Certainly, memberships and subscriptions are important mechanisms to build a loyal audience, but they also need to be centered around something readers can't get anywhere else. That usually means narrowing the lens of focus rather than widening it. Niche subjects—even within a more general brand—will typically see higher engagement and more loyalty than general ones. Then there's the stickiness of interactivity. One thing that emerging media platforms like Substack and TikTok do well is encouraging direct conversation between content creators and audience members. But being interactive doesn't always have to be so hands-on: Semi-automated features like polls, quizzes, and games are all effective habit-builders—and cannot be substituted by AI. Rise of the machines If you think about it, there's a kind of a 'well, duh' quality to all the reports that confirm people don't click through to sources when they use AI. (Pew Research just put out another, by the way.) That's because removing the need to click is largely the point. Why go and read a whole bunch of articles when bots can do it for you? But that reveals the other side of the coin: Bots are now doing the searching and the clicking, and that activity is traceable, measurable, and potentially monetizable. In other words, the inevitable rise in bot traffic represents both an unprecedented threat and a massive opportunity. First, there's the obvious idea of charging bots to scrape your site. Putting in paywalled endpoints—where AI bot operators pay a small fee to access content—may work, especially now that Cloudflare is leading the charge in empowering website owners to block bots. However, it greatly depends on the scrapers acting in good faith—and even if they do, it's doubtful if the fee per scrape that publishers charge would ever be enough to build a sustainable business. What could help is winning the next SEO war: AIEO, or artificial intelligence engine optimization. Being one of the primary sources in an AI Overview or a ChatGPT answer might not seem like much of a prize, given the low click-through rates. But if you pair it with both a pay-per-crawl mechanism and a content strategy that focuses on the AI-resilient content types discussed earlier—the ones that have a higher chance of audiences seeking them out—the benefits could end up being more than mere bragging rights. This kind of AI-first content strategy does require a more sophisticated approach. You'd have to make use of the full search and AI toolbox, including things like Google snippets to ensure AI crawlers highlight the most enticing parts of your content without giving the store away, and MCP servers that can ensure bots have direct access to the content you green-light for them. While that can be technically cumbersome, the market is already adapting, with AIEO specialists like Scrunch AI offering one-stop-shop packages that essentially make a bot-friendly copy of your website so that crawlers can feast while humans enjoy your regular site. Smaller, better . . . robot-ier? The truth about the future of media is that the audience, the human audience, will be smaller for pretty much everyone. As more people get their information from AI portals, publishers will need to make the most of the few people who come directly to them. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. Going small can ultimately be part of a healthier brand of journalism, as I argued in my very first column. But the parallel trend is that the bot audience is rising fast, and it undoubtedly will be a dominant force in the way information is distributed. Harnessing that force will be essential for the media. And though there are still a lot of unknowns—the best practices, the legal framework, even the potential rewards—at least it's easy to see what not to do: wait.
Politico
28 minutes ago
- Politico
Thune's pre-recess game plan
IN TODAY'S EDITION:— Thune's 'minibus' dream for this week— Grassley's willing to cancel August recess— GOP blames Hamas as conditions in Gaza worsen Senators are racing the clock to make a dent in both the government funding process and President Donald Trump's backlog of nominees before heading home for August recess. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is hoping to get the first appropriations package through the chamber by the end of this week, with lawmakers on the hook for landing a deal to avoid a shutdown come Sept. 30. To that end, GOP leaders are negotiating with members of their conference over a 'minibus' of three bills that would, collectively, fund the departments of Commerce, Justice, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, as well as key military construction projects and the FDA. Sen. John Kennedy's opposition to including legislation that would fund congressional operations will likely force leadership to postpone debating a fourth bill at this time. The pending package will require senators to run out two, 30-hour debate clocks; the ability to move faster will require buy-in from all 100 senators. It will also take time for lawmakers of both parties to agree on amendments and then hold votes, and Democrats are still deliberating their strategy, a person granted anonymity to share private negotiations tells Jordain. Republican leadership still believes it can pass the mini-bus before leaving town, according to a second person granted anonymity. But one potential fallback option, according to two people granted anonymity, could be for the Senate to schedule a final passage vote before they leave town for the first week back in September. Senate Republicans are also under pressure from Trump to confirm more of his nominees before heading home for recess. Thune has warned his members to prepare to vote at least through this weekend after the president urged senators to stay in Washington through August to wrap up the work, though many lawmakers aren't pleased with that idea. They're eager, instead, to get back to their home states, especially as they look to counter Democratic messaging against the freshly-passed GOP megabill. Other Senate Republicans say they're ready to give Trump what he's after. Over the weekend, Sen. Mike Lee repeatedly urged his colleagues to either work through August to advance nominations or cancel all pro-forma sessions over the next month to allow Trump to make recess appointments. 'The Senate can't have it both ways,' Lee said in a post on X. Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley also said he's on board with the president's call for the Senate to stick around to vote on nominations through August, writing on X, 'Trump needs his administration in place.' Republicans have typically been unenthused by the idea of recess appointments, though, and it's unlikely they'd go along with that plan. And while Thune is threatening to keep the Senate in session deeper into August, many lawmakers view it as just that: a threat to get Democrats to cut a deals on nominations to get out of town. 'I think it's fair to say that we're going keep the pressure on the Democrats to, you know, stay here until either they cooperate or we're just going to grind it out and do it the old fashioned way,' Thune told Jordain. GOOD MONDAY MORNING. Email us at mmccarthy@ jcarney@ crazor@ and bguggenheim@ Follow our live coverage at WHAT WE'RE WATCHINGWith help from Jordan Williams The House will meet for a pro forma session at 2 p.m. The Senate is in session and will vote to move forward with David Wright's nomination to be a Nuclear Regulatory Commission member at 5:30 p.m. Lawmakers will vote to confirm Wright and move forward with Earl Matthews' nomination to be DOD general counsel at 8 p.m. — Senate Agriculture will consider the nominations of Brian Quintenz to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Michael Boren to be under secretary of agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment at 5:30 p.m. The rest of the week: The Senate will continue marking up government funding bills and confirming the president's nominations. Pro subscribers receive this newsletter with a full congressional schedule and can browse our comprehensive calendar of markups, hearings and other notable events around Washington. Sign up for a demo. THE LEADERSHIP SUITE Johnson pans bipartisan push for a vote to release Epstein files Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday criticized an ongoing effort from Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna that would force a House floor vote to compel the release of more files related to the charges against the deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The bipartisan duo's proposal is 'reckless,' Johnson said on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' arguing it would force the DOJ and FBI to release information 'that was not even credible enough to be entered into the court proceedings.' He also said it wouldn't do enough to protect Epstein's victims. 'These are minors in many cases who were subjected to unspeakable crimes, abject evil,' Johnson said. 'They've already suffered great harm. We do not need their names being unmasked. The Massie and the Khanna [bill] ... does not have adequate protections.' Asked whether Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell would be deserving of a pardon — something Trump has yet to rule out — Johnson said: 'I think 20 years was a pittance. I think she should have a life sentence at least ... I have great pause about that as any reasonable person would.' Johnson last week suggested the House Oversight effort to subpoena testimony from Maxwell might be a waste of time since she could not be counted upon to serve as a 'credible witness.' Massie and Khanna, in a separate, joint interview on the same program Sunday, rejected the argument that their bill would put Epstein and Maxwell's victims at risk. 'That's a straw man,' Massie said. 'Ro and I carefully crafted this legislation so that the victims' names will be redacted and that no child pornography will be released. So [leadership is] hiding behind that. But we're trying to get justice for the victims.' Khanna argued that many of the victims 'do want these files released for closure and for healing.' The two lawmakers predict they will easily collect the 218 signatures required to circumvent leadership and force a floor vote on the matter upon the House's return from recess in September. Republicans blame Hamas as starvation conditions in Gaza worsen As the U.S. pulls out of ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens, GOP leaders say Hamas' inability to cooperate is damaging any hopes of progress in the region. Last week, a U.N. World Food Programme official said about a quarter of the population in Gaza is facing famine-like conditions. Yet as global condemnation sharpens against the Israeli military's limit on aid routes, Trump and Republican leaders continue to insist Hamas is to blame for the fact that civilians, including children, are dying of hunger. 'People are stealing the food, they're stealing the money,' Trump told reporters Sunday. 'They're stealing weapons. That whole place is a mess… the Gaza Strip.' Johnson echoed those talking points on NBC: 'Israel, since this war began, has supplied over 94,000 truckloads full of food,' he said Sunday. 'But Hamas has stolen the food, a huge amount.' (The New York Times reported Saturday that the Israeli military has not found proof that Hamas has systematically stolen aid from the U.N.) The Israeli military on Sunday paused fighting in various population centers across Gaza to increase the delivery of humanitarian aid. Airdrops of aid have resumed. Still, some congressional Democratic leaders who have typically been mindful not to appear unsupportive of a longtime U.S. ally are sending dire warnings to Israel about the starvation crisis — and telling Trump his administration needs to take urgent action. 'The starvation and death of Palestinian children and civilians in an ongoing war zone is unacceptable,' House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement late Friday. 'The Trump administration has the ability to bring an end to this humanitarian crisis. ... It is imperative that humanitarian aid be surged into Gaza immediately, the remaining Israeli hostages be released and the ceasefire negotiated by the Biden administration restored.' POLICY RUNDOWN SMITH ENDORSES ROLLBACK OF GAMBLING DEDUCTION CHANGES — House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith said Friday he supports reversing a new policy that got shoehorned into the GOP megabill that will curtail tax deductions for gambling losses. 'The version of the one big, beautiful bill that passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee did not make any changes to the tax treatment of gambling losses,' Smith said at a field hearing in Las Vegas, the tax-writing panel's first stop in a recess campaign to sell the sweeping domestic policy package. The provision, which has caused an uproar in the gambling community, will reduce the amount of gambling losses that taxpayers can deduct — from 100 percent to 90 percent — beginning in 2026. It would effectively mean that an individual could still owe taxes on their gambling activities even if they break even. Smith blamed Senate Republicans for inserting the provision, adding that 'many members on both sides of the aisle are open to working to address it before it goes into effect on January 1.' Rep. Dina Titus, who has introduced legislation in the House that would reverse the policy change, made a guest appearance at the committee event in her home state and thanked Smith for his support. She noted that Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, along with the Resorts Association and the American Gambling Association, all came out in support of reversing the new tax rules. RSC LAUNCHES TASK FORCE FOR SECOND MEGABILL — Republican Study Committee Chair August Pfluger on Friday announced the creation of the 'RSC Reconciliation 2.0 Working Group,' which will focus on crafting a policy framework for the next legislative package Republicans want to pass through the party-line budget reconciliation process. Pfluger touted the conservative coalition's role in driving down the deficit impact of the final version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. GOP leaders and committee chairs in both chambers have indicated over the past month there is ample opportunity to legislate further in the arenas of tax, trade and particularly health care. But it's not yet clear what the broader political appetite will be to pursue a second partisan package after the intraparty strains the process put on Republicans the first time around this year. JIM JORDAN IN EUROPE — House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan will meet with the European Commission's executive vice president for tech policy, Henna Virkkunen, today after leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to London and Brussels over the weekend, Anthony Adragna reports. That sit-down will come as Jordan has used his gavel to condemn European tech laws, which he has accused of censorship against American social media companies. He's also expected to tout a Judiciary committee staff report that was released this past Friday, which knocks the European Union's Digital Services Act as a 'foreign censorship threat' and alleges that 'overzealous European bureaucrats' are being 'empowered' to 'impose global censorship standards,' including on the U.S. BIPARTISAN SCRUTINY ON USDA SHAKEUP — Democrats and Republicans on Senate Agriculture have serious questions about the USDA's recent shakeup that would shift most of its Washington-area staff among five regional hubs around the country. The top committee Democrat, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, called the relocation plan 'half-baked,' while Chair John Boozman expressed disappointment he wasn't consulted on the plan. Bipartisan scrutiny of the proposed agency reorganization will come to a head during a committee hearing Wednesday, where lawmakers will hear from Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden. Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E: CAMPAIGN STOP THE GOP'S MASTRIANO PROBLEM — Trump's advisers privately fear far-right firebrand Doug Mastriano could make Republicans lose the Pennsylvania governor's seat and drag down the GOP ticket in the midterms if he wins the nomination, Holly Otterbein reports. Republicans blame Mastriano for costing the party a Senate contest, multiple House seats and a state legislative chamber in 2022 when he lost the gubernatorial race by 15 points. Trump initially endorsed him in the primary at that time but came to regret the decision as Mastriano raised little money and aired almost no TV ads. Now, as he teases a comeback bid against Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, people close to Trump's political operation tell Holly the president's team thinks Mastriano 'could jeopardize multiple down-ballot congressional races.' NORMAN MAKES IT OFFICIAL — Rep. Ralph Norman is entering the race for South Carolina governor, setting up a competitive Republican primary in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Henry McMaster, Jacob Wendler reports. Norman, a House Freedom Caucus stalwart who has represented South Carolina's 5th District since 2017, has already changed his X handle to 'Ralph Norman for Governor' and launched his campaign website. He's poised to primary Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson, the son of S.C. GOP Rep. Joe Wilson. Rep. Nancy Mace has previously said she is 'seriously considering' entering the race as well. COOPER MAKES IT (SORT OF) OFFICIAL — Former Gov. Roy Cooper seemingly announced his bid for Senate in North Carolina this past weekend at a Democratic state party dinner. 'Everybody who is planning to run for office next year, please stand up!' Cooper told the crowd on Saturday night — then added, to enthusiastic cheers from the audience, 'Hey, I'm not sitting down. Am I?' Democrats, who see North Carolina as one of the party's best opportunities in an otherwise challenging Senate midterm map, have been eagerly awaiting Cooper's decision about whether to run for the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis. Trump has endorsed RNC chair Michael Whatley on the Republican side. THE BEST OF THE REST Democrats Get More Vocal About 'Horrors Upon Horrors' in Gaza, from Brett Bachman at NOTUS Democratic candidates are posting weightlifting videos in search of a midterm lift, from David Wright at CNN JOB BOARD Joel Valdez is now acting deputy press secretary for the Pentagon. He most recently was comms director and senior adviser for Rep. Lauren Boebert and previously worked for former Rep. Matt Gaetz. Devyn Shea is now press secretary for Sen. Dan Sullivan. He most recently was press secretary for Del. Kimberlyn King-Hinds. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rep. Gabe Evans … former Rep. Liz Cheney … former Sen. Bill Bradley … NBC's Courtney Kube … Mark Meadows … Richard Haass … Kathy Dedrick (5-0) … Josh Bell of Rep. Ron Estes' office … Abigail Kane … Patrick Boland … Tanya Snyder … Stacy McBride of HB Strategies … Michael Herald of Sen. Todd Young's office TRIVIA FRIDAY'S ANSWER: Dale Marsico correctly answered that George Washington did not visit Rhode Island during a congressional recess in 1789 because the state had not ratified the constitution yet. TODAY'S QUESTION, from Dale: What occupation did Franklin Delano Roosevelt claim when he voted, even while serving as president? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@
