By ending tax credits for wind and solar power, Senate Republicans may have jeopardized billions in investments in their own districts.
When Congress enacted President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s signature climate law in 2022, Democrats made a bet. They knew the law would spur billions of dollars of investments in solar arrays, battery factories and other clean energy projects, primarily in Republican-led districts. That was designed to give the law staying power.
But that wager failed spectacularly on Tuesday as Senate Republicans voted to dismantle many of the law’s lucrative tax credits for solar panels, wind turbines, electric cars and other green technologies as part of President Trump’s giant domestic policy bill.
Nearly all Republicans voted for the bill even as industry groups, labor unions and even some members of their own party warned that axing those clean energy credits could erase thousands of jobs in red states and raise electricity prices nationwide.
In the final hours of debate, a few Senate Republicans managed to secure a one-year extension for wind and solar companies to qualify for existing tax breaks. But the overall bill was still expected to force businesses to abandon projects and to slow the growth of clean energy.
When asked whether he heard from businesses about the jobs at stake in the wrangling over the clean energy credits, Senator Jim Justice, Republican of West Virginia, said on Tuesday: “Sure I did. But I think we’ve got a good bill.” Mr. Justice, who owns three coal companies, added that he supported eliminating the clean energy subsidies to “make it a level playing field” for all energy sources, including fossil fuels. (The final bill added a new tax subsidy, however, for metallurgical coal, a fossil fuel used in steel making.)
Senator John Curtis, Republican of Utah and a lead negotiator of the bill’s energy provisions, said that the one-year extension for wind and solar companies would preserve some well-paying jobs. Still, he acknowledged that other moderate Republican senators ultimately had “bigger” priorities in the domestic policy package than clean energy, including changes to support rural health care and nutrition assistance.