Trump’s Bill Dumps Clean Energy Tax Incentives While Providing Tax Breaks for Billionaires
Last week, Trump and his allies passed a bill dumping clean energy tax cuts to provide huge tax breaks and giveaways to billionaires.
In an early morning vote last week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 215 to 214 to pass the bill. “The reconciliation bill Speaker Johnson and House Republicans just jammed through is a sweeping measure that amounts to the most anti-environmental bill in our nation’s history,” said Sara Chieffo, Vice President of Government Affairs for the League of Conservation Voters (LCV). “It will mean higher gas and electricity costs for struggling families and businesses, tanking the U.S. manufacturing resurgence, ceding leadership to China and increased exposure to pollution for our kids and our communities.”
Breakdown of the Votes
All 215 “yes” votes came from Republican representatives, including all 11 of the Republican members from North Carolina. All 212 Democratic members of the House (including all three North Carolina Democratic members) voted “no.” Three Republican members did not vote and two “deficit hawk” Republicans also voted “no” saying the bill’s cuts were not deep enough.
“We are deeply disappointed by the House Republicans who failed to fix these provisions despite stating their support for these popular clean energy investments,” continued Chieffo. “Let’s be clear why this is being done — to benefit their Big Oil backers and to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.”
What’s Next?
The action now moves to the U.S. Senate, where a number of Republican Senators have the hottest seats around. Many of these Senators represent states that have benefited the most from an economic boom powered by the clean energy tax credits. Chieffo notes “the majority of clean energy investments in this country are in congressional districts represented by Republicans, including a number of extreme members representing those districts doing polluters’ bidding in advocating for full repeal. Voting to gut these investments means voting against your own constituents, threatening their jobs and leaving them with higher electricity prices. People are deeply worried about our economy and rising costs, and our country simply cannot afford to halt clean energy progress in its tracks.”
These Senators must make a tough decision. Do they stick with party-line support of Trump’s self-serving bill, or do they stand up for the future of their own voters? North Carolina’s own Sen. Thom Tillis is among those facing this choice.
Why Clean Energy is Vital to NC’s Economy
In North Carolina, clean energy tax incentives contained in the Inflation Reduction Act have helped attract $23 billion in investment, according to data compiled by Atlas Public Policy and Utah State University. These investments have led to Forty-seven new facilities in our state, including the massive new Toyota battery plant. These facilities could create about 20,000 new, high-paying jobs.
“A number of Republican Senators have already made clear that the House’s sledgehammer approach to clean energy is not going to fly,” concludes LCV’s Chieffo. “We call on them and their colleagues to deliver on commitments to ensure investments in affordable, clean energy continue.”
Join our call to our Senators, urging them to uphold key tax cuts that benefit our families and communities!
The Top 5 Polluter Billionaire Giveaways
LCV’s memo outlines what it calls “The Top 5 Polluter Billionaire Giveaways” in the bill:
- Selling off our public lands and waters to billionaire polluters damaging our communities, water and public health.
- Increasing families’ energy costs by ending clean energy programs, rebates and incentives and repealing vehicle efficiency standards.
- Putting polluting billionaires above the law by creating pay-to-play schemes and other sweetheart deals for oil and gas executives to jam through massive polluting infrastructure projects while sidestepping review, community input, and judicial scrutiny for drilling, pipelines, and methane gas exports.
- Threatening our health and increasing families’ medical costs by eliminating pollution reduction programs that clean up our schools, dirty diesel trucks and buses, and ports all while cutting funding for communities to even be able to track harmful air pollution.
- Gutting widely-supported clean energy tax credit investments, which means higher electricity costs for struggling families and businesses, tanking the U.S. manufacturing resurgence, and ceding leadership to China.
For some Senators, including Thom Tillis, this vote could greatly influence the 2026 elections. Make your voice heard by taking action, then augment your efforts by becoming a donor.
