US Senate panel seeks to cut unspent US climate, clean energy funds
WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) - All unspent funds that were appropriated for climate and clean energy programs under former U.S. President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act would be cut under a proposal by the Senate environment committee submitted on Wednesday.
The panel released a budget reconciliation draft that would rescind all the unspent funds and create a fee that developers of energy projects like oil wells or pipelines can pay to speed through environmental reviews.
The Environment and Public Works Committee budget reconciliation text would repeal all sections of the 2022 IRA, which Biden signed. The act unleashed billions of dollars in grants, loans and incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles, but unspent funds would be rescinded under the Senate panel's plan.
'This legislative text puts in motion plans that Senate Republicans pledged to take, like stopping Democrats' natural gas tax and rescinding unobligated dollars from the so-called Inflation Reduction Act," said West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito, the Republican chair of the EPW committee.
Senate Republicans are wrestling with substantial changes to President Donald Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill, which narrowly won approval in the House of Representatives last month, a sign that significant hurdles remain for the package.
Some Republican senators have said they are interested in preserving some of the IRA's tax credits that were weakened in the House bill because they benefit investments in their states.
The measure would also pause for 10 years a fee on methane emissions for oil and gas operators included in Biden's law. It would also allocate over $250 million to repair the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington.
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