GOP's clean energy divide hits home in the desert
Now those economic gains are caught up in the GOP's internal war over the fate of former President Joe Biden's climate legacy. And that is creating a tough choice for the swing House district's Republican representative, Juan Ciscomani, writes James Bikales.
Ciscomani could resist Republican House leaders' efforts to gut Biden's hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy tax breaks — helping pay for a small portion of President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax and spending megabill. Or he could go along with the cuts, risking the wrath of constituents who could lose billions of dollars in new investments and tens of thousands of new jobs.
Ciscomani is not alone. He is one of a group of Republican lawmakers who for months have been urging their leaders to spare at least some of the tax credits. But now they have to decide how hard to press those demands — and whether they are willing to tank a major part of Trump's agenda if they don't get their way.
It's just one of myriad obstacles facing the megabill, which the House Budget Committee rejected this morning amid hard-line conservatives' demands for a complete rollback of the clean energy tax credits and steeper cuts in programs such as Medicaid. Now, stay tuned for what version of the bill emerges from the coming weekend of negotiations.
Back to Casa Grande
For Ciscomani, the stakes are high. Since he took office in 2023, electric car manufacturer Lucid Motors quadrupled the size of its plant in Casa Grande, bringing thousands of additional jobs to the former agricultural and mining community.
As James writes, Procter & Gamble and several semiconductor chemical manufacturers followed Lucid to the area. Two copper mines that could eventually serve Lucid are in development on the city's outskirts. Central Arizona College launched a training center that is preparing thousands of local residents to work at Lucid and the other factories.
Buoyed by the higher wages from Lucid, population and median income are up in the area, and businesses are streaming back. Target announced in February it would reopen a store in Casa Grande that it had closed in 2016. The boom means that many residents can buy a car or a house for the first time, one Lucid employee told James.
Separately, the SunZia transmission line, part of the country's largest clean energy project, is set to carry massive amounts of wind power across the northern half of Ciscomani's district, transporting much-needed power to Phoenix and California.
Adrian Price, Lucid's senior vice president of operations, told James that if Republicans eliminate Biden's tax credits, the company would remain in Casa Grande. But the company's growth would slow and job opportunities would dwindle.
'Manufacturing is a hugely capital-intensive business ... and you have to be careful about how you invest and grow,' Price said. 'Those credits and those opportunities are part of the fabric of how we structure the business to enable us to grow at the fastest rate we can.'
Thank goodness it's Friday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@eenews.net.
Today in POLITICO Energy's podcast: Zack Colman breaks down the National Weather Service's staffing challenges, as it rushes to fill hundreds of positions throughout the country ahead of the looming hurricane season.
Power Centers
One word to ruin them all The Environmental Protection Agency's proposed repeal of the nation's climate rule for power plants could hinge on a single word: 'Significantly,' writes Jean Chemnick.
Section 111 of the Clean Air Act asks EPA to determine whether a power plant 'causes, or contributes significantly' to harmful air pollution. Conservative legal experts say that EPA could reinterpret 'significantly' to downplay carbon pollution's role in global warming.
Electricity costs climb, despite Trump's promisesOn the campaign trail, Trump vowed to cut energy costs in half. But retail electricity prices are expected to continue a rapid rise this year, with the average price increasing 13 percent from 2022 to 2025, writes Jason Plautz.
The rate of increase could be even higher in the Pacific region, where prices are forecast to rise 26 percent in that time, as well as in New England and the mid-Atlantic regions, which are both forecast to see 19 percent increases.
Greenland snubs Trump with EU musingsGreenland's foreign minister has suggested the European Union could develop its coveted mineral resources amid Trump's threat to seize the island, writes Seb Starcevic.
With its vast caches of rare earths and strategic location in the Arctic, Greenland — a self-ruling Danish territory with a population of around 60,000 — has became an increasingly important geopolitical player whose global profile has been elevated by Trump's aggressive overtures.
In Other News
In a plastic world: On a remote Australian island, the birds are so full of plastic that they crunch.
New study: Climate change can increase health risks during pregnancy.
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A showcase of some of our best subscriber content.
The heads of the World Wildlife Fund, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Nature Conservancy remained the top-earning executives among major environmental and conservation groups.
A federal judge has blocked the Energy Department's new policy capping indirect department-funded research costs.
House Republicans and industry representatives slammed a federal plan to protect workers from heat — and said the proposed regulation would be too onerous for employers to follow.
That's it for today, folks. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
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