Rising energy costs are a problem in the U.S. Ending Inflation Reduction Act tax credits and ramping up fossil fuels would make it even worse.
This story was originally published by Canary Media The Trump administration insists that renewables are making energy more expensive and that more fossil-fueled power will reduce utility bills. But those claims are false — and if congressional Republicans succeed in repealing key tax credits supporting the growth of clean energy, Americans will suffer the consequences in higher electric bills. So finds a report released Thursday by think tank Energy Innovation warning lawmakers of the costs of repealing the clean-energy tax credits created by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration's signature climate law. The fate of those tax credits remains highly uncertain. Some Republican lawmakers have voiced support for keeping them in place, but others have criticized the incentives, which could channel hundreds of billions of dollars to solar and wind power, batteries, electric vehicles, and other carbon-free technologies over the next decade. President Donald Trump has also vowed to repeal the IRA. Key members of the Trump administration have disparaged clean energy as a wasteful distraction while praising fossil gas and coal. Last week at an industry event, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said wind and solar have "obvious scale and cost problems," and dismissed their prospects for serving more than a fraction of the country's power needs. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Here's How But Energy Innovation's report repeats findings from a series of studies over the past months that forecast major downsides to repealing the tax credits, including lost jobs, hundreds of billions of dollars of foregone investment — and significantly more expensive electricity for U.S. businesses and households. Energy Innovation projects that energy costs for U.S. households will rise if key IRA clean energy tax credits are repealed and other federal climate funding disappears. Energy…