a day ago
Markey playing defense against GOP clean energy plans
BOSTON (SHNS) – U.S. Sen. Ed Markey vowed Monday to work with his GOP colleagues to block the passage of billions of dollars in clean energy cuts within a pending Senate proposal, after House Republicans passed a bill that would upend the climate resiliency investments he helped secure within the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
As Senate committees dive into the 'Big Beautiful Bill' that could reach President Donald Trump's desk by July 4, Markey said the version that narrowly passed the House last month would slash $500 billion from the 'clean energy revolution,' in addition to $760 billion in Medicaid cuts.
The House reconciliation bill, which also features deep tax cuts and spending reductions, would repeal or accelerate the phaseout of IRA provisions, including tax credits tied to electric vehicles, clean electricity production and clean electricity investment, according to the Tax Foundation.
'I'm working with my Republican colleagues, especially from the red states, because 80% of all that funding has gone to red states in the IRA, and it's already created 400,000 new jobs,' Markey told business, academic and health care leaders at a New England Council breakfast at the Boston Harbor Hotel.
'The way we drafted the bill is, if you do the manufacturing in an energy transition state — meaning West Virginia, etc. — you get a bonus 10% tax break,' Markey continued. 'So that's where it all went over the last 3.5 years. Now if they cut those tax breaks, it's going to mean 900,000 jobs are going to be killed over the next 10 years that were otherwise going to be put in place. So I'm working with my Republican colleagues to try to find a pathway here to keep as much of that clean energy strategy for our country in place.'
Markey told reporters he needs to find four Senate Republicans who are willing to preserve the clean energy tax credits. It will take a simple majority for the Senate to pass the reconciliation bill.
Four Senate Republicans in April — Sens. Lisa Murkowski, John Curtis, Thom Tillis and Jerry Moran — voiced their opposition to a 'full-scale repeal' of energy tax credits, according to The Hill. On Friday, 13 House Republicans sent Senate leadership a letter requesting improvements to some of the clean energy provisions they passed, including one measure they said would 'would abruptly terminate several credits just 60 days after enactment for projects that have not yet begun construction.'
Markey called the 60-day timeframe 'pretty draconian,' and said he plans to work on pushing out that date.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the environment, energy and climate cuts in the House bill would shrink the country's economy by $1.1 trillion over the next decade, according to Markey's office. The Malden Democrat joined union leaders at IBEW Local 103 in Dorchester on Friday to decry the House cuts.
'Repealing clean energy tax credits is a union job killer,' Lou Antonellis, business manager and financial secretary at IBEW Local 103, said in a statement shared by Markey's office. 'These tax credits help level the playing field, they drive investment, and they put IBW electricians, laborers, ironworkers, and pipe fitters to work building America's energy future. If you take those tax credits away, you're not just pulling funding: you're pulling paychecks from working families, you're pulling apprentices out of training facilities, you're pulling opportunity straight out of our communities.'
At the New England Council forum, Markey pointed out that 94% of all new electrical generation capacity in the United States last year came from wind, solar and battery. Only 6% came from natural gas, he said.
'That's a threat to the natural gas industry,' Markey said. 'That's why Trump is trying to kill offshore wind because we just want to plug in all that electricity.'
On his first day back in office in January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting new offshore wind projects.
Massachusetts lawmakers have pegged offshore wind as key to reach its clean energy goals, while Trump has embraced natural gas and other fossil fuels. In last year's economic development bill, the Legislature agreed to a $400 million investment in climate technology, with an eye toward bolstering the offshore wind industry.
Markey argued eliminating tax breaks for solar and onshore wind would make the New England region more dependent on energy sources from elsewhere in the country. He also lamented the financial blows that clean energy companies, including those based out of Greentown Labs in Somerville and The Engine in Cambridge, would experience without tax credits for electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and battery storage technologies.
'My concern is that if all of the clean energy tax breaks are killed, that will kill the wind and solar and all electric vehicle and battery storage technologies that come out of Massachusetts but are revolutionizing the nation's relationship with fossil fuels, which get into the lungs of the American people,' Markey told reporters. 'So I'm working with Republicans to try to find a way to preserve as many of the clean energy tax breaks, which will help our state, but it will also help those red states, as well, to transition to a clean energy future.'
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