House Republicans axed key clean energy tax credits out of their spending bill, but “Senate Republicans are planning to have the last word,” according to a Politico report.
“We have a lot of work that we need to do on the timeline and scope of the production and investment tax credits,” Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), told Politico.
Tillis is a member of the Finance Committee, which oversees the credits. He, along with Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), John Curtis (R-UT), and Jerry Moran (R-KS) urged the House in April against “broadly gutting the credits.”
Murkowski said Senate Republicans are “obviously going to be looking at” the provisions, “and kind of seeing where we start our conversation.”
“The House has spoken, and now the Senate will speak, and I’ve been pretty clear where I’m at,” Curtis told the outlet.
Moran said he has “always been a supporter” of phasing out credits for wind and solar. However, he wants to evaluate what the House spending bill did “to see how acceptable [that is] or if that is too damaging.”
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Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) is the top Democrat on the Finance Committee and claims the clean electricity credits he helped write are “very popular with Republicans.”
“They got greedy, some of the sponsors [in the House], and now some of the Republican senators are saying, ‘We can’t go along with that,’” Wyden said.
“For many in the industry, it’s their first up-close experience with the strong tide for partisan politics that prevents party divisions on major votes like this one,” said former Senate staffer Chris Moyer, who is now president of Echo Communications Advisors. “This is a hard-learned lesson, and the only option left is to hope the Senate will show more backbone in fixing the House’s errors.”
Politico said the clean energy provisions were “added late Wednesday.”
Congresswoman Jen Kiggans (R-VA) voted for the spending bill but hopes, “As the bill moves to the Senate, I hope further changes will be made to protect the tax credits that are already creating jobs and providing energy for Virginia families.”