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E&E News
01-07-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Megabill renewables debate mirrors state battles
A struggle among Republicans over how harshly the wind and solar industries should be treated in the budget megabill before the Senate carried echoes of similar battles in Texas, Oklahoma and other deep-red states. Republican lawmakers in Texas this year proposed a number of bills that would have curtailed the state's wind and solar boom, including one that would have raised fees on new wind and solar projects. Despite getting strong support in the state Senate, the bills fizzled in the GOP-controlled House, and none of them reached Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's desk by the end of the legislative session in June. Similarly, bills that would have made it harder to build renewable projects in states like Arizona, Oklahoma and Wisconsin fell short, even as Republican rhetoric against those projects has accelerated. Advertisement Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas, said that business groups — including tech companies, manufacturers and even oil and gas producers — were crucial in spreading the message that restricting renewables could drive up electricity costs. That, he said, helped defeat the most strident anti-renewable bills even in a Legislature dominated by conservatives. 'Ultimately, cooler heads prevailed,' said Metzger. 'The Legislature, or at least the House, recognized that these bills would be harmful to both the Texas economy and the grid, and ultimately rejected those approaches that would be so harmful.' Now a similar debate of ideology versus economics is playing out in Washington — with far-reaching implications for the electricity sector. Senate Republicans this weekend rolled out key changes to the spending bill that would impose a new excise tax on renewable energy projects based on certain supply chain requirements, as well as limiting existing tax incentives for projects that don't connect to the grid by 2028. Those provisions went even further than the House-passed version of the spending bill and were reportedly pushed by President Donald Trump. By midday Monday, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) had introduced an amendment to remove the excise tax, which would apply to projects placed in service after 2027 that use certain materials from China. The amendment would also phase out tax credits for renewables on a slower timeline. Ernst was joined by Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). And similar to the outreach in Texas and other states, already some big business groups are making the economic case against the renewable tax. Neil Bradley, executive vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote on X that although the Senate had produced a 'strong' bill, 'taxing energy production is never good policy, whether oil & gas or, in this case, renewables.' 'Electricity demand is set to see enormous growth & this tax will increase prices. It should be removed,' Bradley wrote. The Clean Energy Buyers Association, which includes Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Google, also voiced support over X for the Ernst amendment to strip out the excise tax on renewables and change the timeline for Inflation Reduction Act tax credits: It would ensure that 'companies aren't punished for construction and permitting delays they can't control. It also removes the unfair anti-energy excise tax. We strongly support this amendment,' wrote the group. An estimate from the Rhodium Group, an independent consulting firm, said Senate language, if unchanged, could increase the cost of wind and solar projects by between 10 and 20 percent, leading to higher electricity prices. Nationally, electricity prices have been rising faster than inflation, and many independent estimates have said that anti-renewable policies could drive them up even more. However, Trump has repeatedly pushed Republican allies in Congress to hammer renewables in the budget reconciliation bill. In a Truth Social post June 21, Trump wrote, 'I HATE 'GREEN TAX CREDITS' IN THE GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,' adding, 'It is time to break away, finally, from this craziness!!!' Business groups weigh in In Texas, the anti-renewable bills were couched in a variety of policy goals, including landowner rights and grid reliability. One bill from state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R) would have imposed permitting requirements and fees for large wind and solar projects in order to reduce the impact to project neighbors and landowners. Other bills would have required renewable developers to buy backup power or purchase credits from fossil fuel generators in order to incentivize so-called dispatchable power as the state's electricity demand is growing. Opponents, however, said the bills would have simply raised the cost of new clean power, even as the state was becoming a national leader in wind, solar and battery deployment. And that message was not contained to green groups. Even the Texas Oil and Gas Association told lawmakers that raising electricity costs would hurt the state's economy. The Texas Association of Business distributed research showing that restricting renewables could result in up to $6.3 million in additional costs annually for large industrial users. Glenn Hamer, the group's president, has similarly questioned the federal bill's anti-renewable policies. Hamer wrote on X on Monday that the U.S. needed a 'dramatic expansion of U.S. electricity supply' to compete against China for AI dominance. Hamer's group is a member of the National Association of Manufacturers, which did not respond to a request for comment on the bill. Oklahoma Republicans also teed up a number of anti-renewable bills in this year's legislative session, including one that would have imposed setback rules essentially cutting most of the state off to new wind turbines. That came amid a backdrop of heavy advocacy against wind and solar, with a rally at the state Capitol demanding that Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) issue an executive order banning new wind and solar. In the end, the setback bill failed and the Legislature only managed to move bills related to decommissioning solar panels and adding lighting to turbines. Kylah McNabb, an independent consultant who also leads the Oklahoma Renewable Energy Council, said that part of the opposition to the bills came from tech companies, which are looking to pair data centers with low-cost renewables in Oklahoma. However, McNabb said that the political environment means that similar bills are likely to keep coming up. 'This is a function of what you see on the national stage, with this energy dominance-type approach,' McNabb said. 'But we have the case to make that Oklahoma has always had cheap energy, and part of the reason for that is that we have renewables.' Lawmakers in other states have amplified their opposition to clean energy by rolling out measures that would make new projects harder to build. Wisconsin Republicans, for example, unsuccessfully pushed a bill that would allow municipalities to block wind and solar projects. Arizona lawmakers weighed legislation that would greatly restrict new wind turbines. An Idaho committee passed a new excise tax on wind turbines taller than 100 feet, while Missouri lawmakers debated a new tax on agricultural land that served solar farms, although neither passed. The GOP megabill — which party leaders hope to pass this week — now becomes the main event. Patrick Drupp, climate policy director for the Sierra Club, said in an email that he hoped Republicans would heed the business message and remove plans to 'kneecap the fastest growing source of energy in the U.S.' 'Republican legislators seem to have forgotten that their own constituents have the most to lose here. The renewable energy boom made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act has mostly benefited red states by lowering bills and creating thousands of stable jobs,' Drupp said. 'Before they make any reckless moves like killing the renewable energy industry,' Drupp added, 'Republican lawmakers should think twice and remember that they still answer to the people who voted them into power.' This story also appears in Climatewire.
The Verge
02-06-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Texas Right to Repair bill passes, heads to the governor's desk
Texas moved closer to becoming the next state with a right to repair law on the books, as the state Senate unanimously voted 31 - 0 to finalize HB 2963 this weekend. It would require manufacturers to make spare parts, manuals, and necessary tools available for equipment sold or used in the country's second most populated state. As more states have passed right to repair laws, we've seen repair options and information becoming more widely available nationwide from companies like Apple and Samsung. If the bill is signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, that will add another significant market with these requirements in place. A press release from the United States Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), which has pushed for repairability laws nationwide, noted that this would make Texas the ninth state with a right to repair rule, and the seventh with a version that includes consumer electronics. It follows New York, Colorado, Minnesota, California, Oregon, Maine, and most recently, Washington, and would be the first state on the list with a Republican-controlled government. 'More repair means less waste. Texas produces some 621,000 tons of electronic waste per year, which creates an expensive and toxic mess. Now, thanks to this bipartisan win, Texans can fix that,' said Environment Texas executive director Luke Metzger.
