The GOP plan to make EVs but not sell them

Politico

10-07-2025

Republicans took a conflicted stance in their megabill: They will help factories that make electric vehicle batteries, but not Americans who want to buy EVs.
That's one way to make sense of the EV provisions in President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' which took every incentive that made it easier to buy an electric vehicle and threw them in the wastebasket. Analysts expect sales of battery-powered cars and trucks to drop sharply after September, when the new law phases out Biden-era tax credits worth up to $7,500 for buyers of new and used EVs.
'It's a major blow to the future of the clean energy industry in the U.S.,' said Jay Turner, a professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts who maintains a database of U.S. battery and EV investments.
But there's one aspect of former President Joe Biden's landmark climate law that Republicans didn't erase. They left mostly intact a provision, known as 45X, that gives generous tax breaks to makers of battery cells and modules. Many of those factories are providing jobs in Republican congressional districts.
That gives automakers a reason to get their expensive new battery plants online, even if the American transition to EVs is delayed.
Actually getting that tax break won't be easy, though.
The megabill erects new barriers to purge the EV supply chain of Chinese influence. The Treasury Department will eventually turn that thicket of rules into guidance — leaving battery-makers uncertain in the meantime if their projects will qualify.
The road ahead
As EV incentives disappear, America will discover what an electric vehicle market looks like with (almost) none of Uncle Sam's dollars involved. The government first approved EV incentives under the presidency of George W. Bush.
Automakers will either find a way to make the EV inexpensive and compelling enough to compete with the traditional car — or they won't.
Longtime EV advocates are discouraged by the thoroughness of the Trump assault.
'It's disappointing and frustrating,' said Anne Blair, the vice president of policy at the Electrification Coalition, a nonprofit that lobbies for EVs. 'I've been around long enough, I've seen these waves, but this is the most aggressive attack on clean tech that we have seen.'
Stephanie Brinley, an auto analyst at S&P Global Mobility, said it will now be up to consumers to decide 'how fast the EV adaptation should go.'
'Trump was not shy about wanting to roll back the regulations and incentives for EVs. You have to believe there were voters who wanted that to happen,' she said.
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Today in POLITICO Energy's podcast: Debra Kahn breaks down the rising political backing for nuclear power and the stubborn realities holding back the power source.
Power Centers
FEMA: Conspicuously quietDavid Richardson, the acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has not been to the site of the deadly flooding in central Texas, upending a long practice of FEMA leaders making themselves visible after major disasters.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited the flooded area on Saturday. But former FEMA officials said Richardson's absence — and his lack of public appearances, statements and social media postings — raise concerns that DHS is controlling the agency's response, Thomas Frank reports.
'The secretary has a huge portfolio, and she will quickly get pulled in different directions to handle all of the things she needs to manage. You need the FEMA administrator, whose job is only to manage the disaster,' said Deanne Criswell, who ran FEMA during the Biden administration.
The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment directly to questions about Richardson's absence, but defended the agency's general response.
'FEMA has deployed extensive staff to support Texas response and recovery operations based on staff skills and requirements,' said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS.
Zeldin, Texas and weather tamperingLee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, drew new attention today to concerns over potential weather modifying technology at a time when unfounded questions have swirled around the cause of catastrophic flooding in Texas, Kevin Bogardus and Ellie Borst write.
Newly launched agency webpages share new information about jets' contrails, which have long been at the center of conspiracy theories about climate-related experiments and military operations. 'EPA is not aware of any scientific evidence that supports any claim that any nefarious activities are taking place,' the agency said, reaffirming the broad scientific consensus.
Some Democrats mocked the contrail postings, accusing EPA of giving oxygen to baseless accusations. But Zeldin called the new pages an example of the Trump administration's 'total transparency,' saying he had asked his staff to compile everything EPA knows about contrails and geoengineering and release it to the public.
'For years, people who ask questions in good faith were dismissed, even vilified by the media and their own government,' Zeldin said in a video. 'That era is over. '
Pipeline 'shakedown'Opposition is growing over a revived natural gas pipeline project that would run into New York City, Mike Soraghan writes.
Williams Cos., headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has petitioned federal regulators to reissue a certificate to build the Northeast Supply Enhancement project, a 24-mile natural gas pipeline that would run into New York from New Jersey. The project would deliver more gas from the Gulf Coast to the metropolitan area.
Trump has pushed to revive gas pipelines that had previously run into state opposition in the Northeast, including the Constitution pipeline, which would deliver shale gas from Pennsylvania. Critics are accusing Trump of a 'political shakedown' that forced New York state officials to get behind the pipeline project.
Placating the rightModerate Republicans are fuming about Trump's executive order signed on Monday to placate conservatives who voted for his mega-tax-and-spend bill. Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Curtis of Utah secured concessions to ease the phase-out of renewable energy tax credits, Nico Portuondo, Kelsey Brugger and Timothy Cama write.
Murkowski, during a hearing Wednesday, said the order 'really guts the effort for a compromise that we were able to secure within that reconciliation bill. So I don't really like it. I'll just be blunt, I don't really like it all.'
Trump's executive order cracking down on clean energy tax credits injects a fresh round of uncertainty for solar and wind developers.
In Other News
Oil falls: Brent crude oil futures prices fell more than 2 percent to $68 a barrel on Thursday. Investors weighed the potential impact of higher U.S. import tariffs on global economic growth.
EVs in Canada: The nation's electric vehicle mandate is under fire from Washington — and if it falls, one of the biggest losers could be Elon Musk.
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The Department of Energy released a fact sheet warning that a 'radical green agenda' would lead to power outages in the coming years. It appears to have come from a Trump political appointee who also had a hand in ending all diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the Interior Department.
The Interior Department's adoption of artificial intelligence tools is hindered by 'significant strategic uncertainties and institutional barriers,' according to the department's internal watchdog.
Ten Northeast states will accelerate their efforts to fight climate change by cutting their power sector emissions three times faster under the terms of a new agreement.
That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.