As Congress debates budget bills proposing deep cuts in federal spending, Biden-era tax credits for clean energy have gained crucial support among some Republican lawmakers and voters.
Four Republican senators wrote to their party's leadership April 9 to "caution against the full-scale repeal" of tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that support investments in renewable energy installations, battery manufacturing, energy efficiency improvements and the production of alternative fuels.
The senators—Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Curtis of Utah—warned that removing the credits "could lead to significant disruptions for the American people and weaken our position as a global energy leader."
The senators join a group of 21 Republicans in the House of Representatives who made a similar plea last month in a letter last to the House speaker defending the tax credits.
Zach Friedman, senior director of federal policy for the nonprofit climate group Ceres, said the Senate letter is especially notable because Senator Tillis serves on the Senate Finance Committee which will play a key role in the budget bill's development in the coming months.
"For the first time, you have a member of the committee of jurisdiction, Senate Finance, coming out in public support of keeping things," Friedman told Newsweek. Ceres organized a Capitol Hill lobbying trip by business leaders in March supporting the tax credits, including some companies with a significant presence in North Carolina.
Although the IRA became law in 2022 without any Republican votes in either chamber of Congress, several analyses of the bill's impacts show most investments triggered by the law's clean energy and clean tech manufacturing incentives have landed in states and Congressional Districts represented by Republicans.
Friedman said more lawmakers are recognizing that the tax credits from a Democratic law aimed at addressing climate change also support Republican goals such as job growth and more abundant energy.
"This shows Republican support and how these credits align with, you know, the president's and Republicans' priorities," he said.
A recent public opinion survey indicates that those lawmakers are speaking for a sizeable portion of Republican voters. A survey of more than 800 adults conducted last month by the University of Maryland's Program for Public Consultation found majority support from both Democrats and Republicans for keeping or expanding the IRA's clean energy tax credits.
The survey presented brief descriptions of the various types of tax credits in the IRA and short arguments for and against keeping them, such as "these tax credits have boosted clean energy adoption," versus "credits can cost the government $100 billion a year, worsening the deficit."
Support among self-described Republicans ranged from about 70 percent for credits for EV purchases to well more than 80 percent for renewable energy credits.
"It appears that Americans, including Republicans, have gotten used to the idea of using tax credits to promote clean energy, energy efficiency and EVs," program director Steven Kull said in a statement after the survey was released. "There is little interest in changing them now."
A separate recent analysis of the jobs connected to the tax credits points to growing support among another important voting group, organized labor. The Climate Jobs National Resource Center, a coalition of labor groups promoting clean energy job opportunities, looked at how the IRA credits were playing out in eight states. The group's report identified a little more than 1,000 projects in development that would benefit from the tax credits and that could spur hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Labor groups are particularly interested in provisions in the IRA that reward companies that pay prevailing union wages and make use of apprenticeship programs in their workforce.
Kent Miller, president and business manager for the Wisconsin Laborers District Council, said that prior to those incentives, clean energy jobs such as the construction of solar power arrays would often go to out-of-state companies that offered low pay. The IRA tax credits changed that, he said.
"That really helps level the playing field to make sure that we have a seat at the table and we're part of these conversations for workforce development on future utility scale solar projects," Miller told Newsweek. Booming growth in solar now results in more local union employment, he said, while the apprenticeship programs grow the skilled workforce.
"Some of those individuals are coming in getting more training, getting more experience and knowledge, and it's helping feed the construction industry as a whole," Miller said.
The Climate Jobs National Resource Center analysis found 92 projects in Wisconsin that could benefit from the tax credits and generate as many as 36,956 jobs. Next door in Illinois, the report found 52 clean energy projects that could support 51,431 jobs.
Illinois AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Pat Devaney said the federal tax credits work well with state policy to make the clean energy transition a good deal for workers.
"We chose to proactively address climate change but making sure we were doing so by putting the Illinois worker foremost in the discussion," Devaney told Newsweek. "If you roll those back, we're not going to see those investments, we're not going to see those jobs and we're not going to see the electrons on the grid that we very much need."
