Latest news with #energyPrices
CBS News
30-06-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Senate version of Trump's "big, beautiful bill" would pummel renewable energy industry with new tax
Everything we know about the Senate "vote-a-rama" on Trump's "big, beautiful bill" The latest version of the bill containing President Trump's second term agenda would hobble the renewable energy industry with a new excise tax, in addition to speeding up the sunsetting of tax credits and other benefits. The additional tax on wind and solar projects, which appeared on page 558 in the version of the bill released over the weekend, is estimated to increase consumer energy prices 8% to 10% and would tax clean energy businesses an additional $4-$7 billion by 2036, according to an analysis by the American Clean Power Association. The tax would apply to all projects that go into construction after June 16 through 2036, and it would also apply to projects that are placed into service after 2027, even if they already are under construction. Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski told Politico Monday that she planned to introduce an amendment that would tie eligibility for the wind and solar tax credits to a project's construction start date, rather than its service date. The Senate is currently holding a marathon vote series on unlimited amendments to the bill. These wind and solar projects would have to pay the tax if a certain percentage of the value of their materials are sourced from prohibited foreign countries, like China. The provision is ostensibly designed to boost domestic manufacturing, but developing these projects by working around Chinese components would be cost prohibitive, and some data and AI companies — which require prodigious amounts of energy — could turn to China or other countries for reliable and affordable power sources, according to clean power experts. The Senate bill also scales back or eliminates renewable energy tax breaks that have been in place since 2005 and revised and expanded a few times since then, including in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The most recent expansion contained tax breaks for individuals for electric vehicles, wind and solar development, and energy efficient appliances and provided tax credits for clean electricity-generating projects that went into service from 2023 through the end of 2032. Both the Senate and the House would end the renewable energy tax credits, but the Senate would accelerate the timeline in the House version, which would end the tax credits for renewable energy projects placed in service after 2028, a year later than the Senate would. Eliminating the existing tax credits would likely kill up to 72% of the new wind and solar installations that were to be completed in the U.S. over the next decade, according to analysis from Rhodium Group, a research firm. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who until Saturday was silent on the bill after his social media spat with President Trump over the House version, said of the Senate bill that it was "Utterly insane and destructive." "It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future," he said in a post on X. And he predicted it would "destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!" Musk also said, "A massive strategic error is being made right now to damage solar/battery that will leave America extremely vulnerable in the future." According to Politico, President Trump asked Senate Majority Leader John Thune to further "crack down" on wind and solar energy by phasing out clean energy credits faster, rather than sunsetting the tax incentives more slowly, which moderate senators favored. Some asked for help easing the hit their states would take as a result of cancelled projects, job losses and higher energy prices. The renewable energy industry, manufacturing unions and even some conservatives also criticized the new tax. Conservative energy expert Alex Epstein, advocates ending the green tax credits, but he appeared to be taken by surprise by the excise tax, saying in a post on X, "I just learned about the excise tax and it's definitely not something I would support." The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also quickly condemned the tax. Neil Bradly, the Chamber's executive vice president, said on social media, "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." The North American Building Trades Union in a statement called the bill potentially "the biggest job-killing bill in the history of this country." "Simply put, it is the equivalent of terminating more than 1,000 Keystone XL pipeline projects," the statement continued. "In some cases, it worsens the already harmful trajectory of the House-passed language, threatening an estimated 1.75 million construction jobs and over 3 billion work hours, which translates to $148 billion in lost annual wages and benefits."
Irish Times
30-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Food prices rise more than 4% as headline inflation increases again
Prices for consumer goods and services in Ireland have increased by 1.6 per cent in the past year, the latest inflation data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows. The biggest increase in Ireland was in food prices, which are estimated to have risen by 4.3 per cent in the past year, and by 0.3 per cent since May. The data, which falls under the EU Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices for Ireland, covers the month of June. Prices have risen by 0.5 per cent since May, while the annual inflation rate of 1.6 per cent shows an increase on May's annual figure of 1.4 per cent. READ MORE Despite the increase, June's figure is lower that the euro zone's rate of 1.9 per cent over the same period. Energy prices are estimated to have fallen by 1.8 per cent in the year to June and by 0.2 per cent in the month. Stripping out energy and unprocessed food, the overall rate of inflation is estimated to have gone up by 1.9 per cent since June last year. Elsewhere, transport costs fell by 2 per cent in the year to June, but increased by 1.2 per cent compared to May.
Bloomberg
27-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Trump Says He'll Choose Fed Chair Who Wants to Cut Rates
CC-Transcript 00:00Love them to resign if he wanted to. Agent done lousy job. Look, if you were there, you'd say, well, you know, the United States is doing well. They have no inflation. And if they do get inflation in a year or two, we'll put we'll start raising the rates. We get rid of the inflation, you know, do other things. Biden had the worst inflation in the history of our country. 19%, but I think it was much higher than that. Frankly, they say 19%. I said I think it's a lot higher than that. And we have almost no inflation now. We've done a great job in a short period of time. Energy prices are way down. Gasoline now is down to close to $2 in a lot of places. A couple of places I see it even broke. It's like 198 a gallon. We've done a great job on inflation and honestly, pretty much everything else. I think that I think it's very sad the way people act. You know, you have a guy in there that with the stroke of a pen, could lower interest rates and save us hundreds of billions of dollars a year. But he's a stupid person. You know, it's very interesting. He. I'm not sure if he doesn't understand it, because you should be able to understand it. It's sort of one on one economics, but I'm not sure of that. But think of it with the stroke of a pen, he talks about costs we can save. $600 billion. Maybe even these are nice numbers for you, right? $900,000,000,950 billion by lowering interest rates. And it's really just more of a paper movement. It's not like you're not cutting anything. You're not cutting jobs. It's just interest rates. And we're number 40 or 44, number 45, some places that you wouldn't believe that. You know, I don't want to be disparaging, but they pay a lower interest rate than the United States of America. And without us, everything blows up. You know, we sort of control the world in that sense. But we have a guy that's just a stubborn mule. And the stupid person that is making a big mistake is making a mistake. And it lasts for years. Because when you do the debt now, I've instructed my people not to do any debt beyond nine months or so. Get this guy out and whoever is in there, it will lower rates. If I don't if I think somebody is going to keep the rates where they are or whatever, I'm not going to put them in. I'm going to put somebody that wants to cut rates. There are a lot of them out there. And I said this morning, a lot of the business shows today were saying, you know, Trump is right. He should be cutting rates. Think of it. We have a great country. We're making a lot of money, would take it in billions of dollars in tariffs. We have one we have $15 trillion of money that wants to be invested here, which is a record in two months. It breaks any record that we've ever had for a whole year and not even close 15 trillion. And it's going to be much higher than that. That's after essentially two months because, you know, we've been doing it for about two months, two and a half months, $15 trillion breaks, every record in the book. There's never been anything like this. We have factories moving in, we have car plants moving in. We have everyone wants to be part of the United States. And as I told you and I said to everybody when I was in the Middle East, the king of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE, all great leaders, they've all great leaders, all three of them said, you got the hottest country in the world and you did it. And at that time, I was there for four months. We got back a little while ago, but everybody says not only them, but we have the hottest country in the world right now. The only thing is we have a Fed chairman that is he doesn't get it. And you could have substantially lower like if we cut him two points would save more than 600. Think of it, more than $600 billion just because you cut. But you can't go out to the market and say, well, we have a guy that's got us at 4% or four and a half percent and we want to pay 2% or 1%. I think we should be paying 1% right now. And we're paying more because we have a guy who's suffering from, I think, Trump derangement syndrome, if you want to know the truth. But he's not good for our country.
Bloomberg
24-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
BOE's Greene Warns Rising UK Inflation Could Become Sticky
Bank of England rate-setter Megan Greene warned second-round effects may keep inflation above 3% for longer but said it should not prevent the central bank from pressing on with gradual interest-rate cuts. Speaking in London on Tuesday, Greene warned that the recent increase in inflation to 3.4% from 2.6% due to higher household energy and food bills is likely to be 'more of a plateau than a hump,' raising the risk that workers seek pay hikes to catch up with a faster rise in prices.
Sky News
23-06-2025
- Business
- Sky News
Strait of Hormuz: Here's why Iran might close this crucial waterway
Why you can trust Sky News Every day, 21 million barrels of oil pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow channel in the Middle East that is crucial to global trade. Now Iranian politicians want to block it, potentially sending energy prices surging. The world is waiting for Iran's response to the recent US and Israeli strikes on its nuclear facilities, with fears the conflict could escalate in the volatile region. One possibility is that Tehran could attempt to close the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz - and the Iranian parliament has voted to do just that. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned it would be "economic suicide" for Iran to close the waterway, but it's possible that Iran decides to try it anyway in a bid to strike back at the West. What is the Strait of Hormuz? The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow passage that leads from the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea and the ocean beyond. It's about 100 miles long and just 24 miles wide at its narrowest point. For countries like Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE along the southern side of the strait - producers of a significant portion of the world's oil - it's the only access to the sea, making it one of the most strategically important choke points in global trade. On the northern bank, the coastline is dominated by Iran, which has repeatedly threatened to exert control over the strait. Why is it important? "The Strait of Hormuz sees an enormous amount of the world's traffic," says Dan Marks, an expert in energy security at the RUSI thinktank. "There's no alternative." And the stats back it up. In 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, roughly 20% of global oil and petroleum products passed through the narrow waterway, according to the US government. The same was true for global liquified natural gas (LNG) last year. Any disruption to the flow of oil transportation through the strait could send energy prices rising and cause huge shipping delays. Potential for real impact on UK economy Sarah Taaffe-Maguire Business and economics reporter @taaffems Like much of this conflict, the impact on the economy is uncertain. It depends on how long it lasts and what comes next. But the threat of the Strait of Hormuz being closed off is one that could have real impacts on the UK economy. As the shipping lane is a vital route for oil and gas supplies, its closure could majorly disrupt the flow and delivery. A fifth of global oil and about a quarter of natural gas is transported through the passage. Were it to close, it could cause a price shock like the one in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Those high prices filter through the economy, making production more expensive and pushing up prices at the till, petrol pump and in energy bills. It was those high gas costs that sparked off the inflation spikes and cost of living crisis. Is Iran going to try and close the Strait of Hormuz? It's unclear. The Iranian parliament approved a motion to close the strait on Sunday, but it would need to be sanctioned by the country's security council before any action was taken. "It's clearly something Iran thinks about," Mr Marks said, but added: "Closing the Strait of Hormuz is easier to threaten when Iran looks like a credible military threat. "Now it looks potentially like a less credible threat... they don't have control of their airspace." He said it is "most likely" that Iran does not move to block shipping through the strait, but said it could depend on what cost the regime is willing to pay. How could Iran close the Strait of Hormuz? If it does decide to try and limit or stop ships from moving through the chokepoint at the Strait of Hormuz, analysts say there are multiple ways Tehran could try to do so. Iran has developed a "considerable array" of capabilities, including sea mines, fast attack vessels, submarines, drones and missile systems, Nick Childs, an expert in maritime security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies thinktank, says. He added: "If used in a comprehensive campaign, these could cause very significant disruption and also potentially seriously hazard US and other naval units including mine countermeasures vessels seeking to keep the waterway open." There's also the possibility that instead of closing the strait entirely, Iran could try and pursue a more targeted campaign of harassment against specific ships - perhaps Israeli, US or other Western vessels. In 2019, the British-flagged Steno Impero ship was detained by Iran for more than two months in the Strait of Hormuz. Indeed, there has already been heavy GPS jamming detected in the region since the start of the Iran-Israel conflict, though its origin is not clear. 1:57 What would the response to Iran be? A concerted Iranian attempt to shut the strait could provoke a "considerable and comprehensive US military response", Mr Childs said. He added: "The Iranian forces could expect to suffer significant damage in return. "The other deterrents to Iran are that a closure of the Strait of Hormuz would hit its own economy, affect one of Tehran's key supporters, China, which is a key customer for Iranian oil, and because the potential effects on the global economy would be most likely to provoke an international response not in Iran's favour." US Secretary of State Marco Rubio played down the threat to the strait. "It's economic suicide for them if they do it. And we retain options to deal with that," he said. Dan Marks from RUSI said there is "potential for miscalculation". He added: "Overall it seems not in Iran or the Iranian leadership's interests to close the strait but I would say that that is very much looking at it from a Western lens, and the Iranian leadership will likely see it differently and that's when the risk of miscalculation comes in."
