Washington, DC—Retired 4-Star military leaders from SAFE’s Energy Security Leadership Council today sent a letter to congressional leaders articulating the national security case for maintaining strategic energy tax provisions. Specifying support for Sections 45X, 30D, 48C, 48E and 45Y, the letter reads:
“We applaud the Trump administration’s pursuit of energy dominance and reshoring critical mineral supply chains and urge Congress to maintain tax credits that complement these goals. Some of these credits support the development of diverse and reliable power sources, and others support commercial activities necessary for downstream domestic mineral demand to ensure that new mineral resources are free of adversarial control and are leveraged for our domestic manufacturing resurgence. Tariffs can play an important role in protecting the domestic market, but regardless of negotiated trade deals, consistent industrial policy is essential for the long-term investments needed bolster these essential industries. The threat of repeal or dilution of these credits is not theoretical—it would:
- Weaken supply chains for numerous defense, energy, and consumer technologies, all of which rely on secure access to critical minerals.
- Create opportunities for CCP-linked firms to enter the U.S. market and increase their global market share of key industries by eliminating important credits that enable American companies to compete while blocking foreign entities of concerns (FEOCs).
- Undermine U.S. grid deployment and energy resilience, by disincentivizing domestic manufacturing of components like transformers, conductors, and storage systems necessary for grid upgrades to meet rising demand while bolstering grid security against cyber and physical threats.
- Delay America’s ability to meet surging energy demand and modernize the grid, by weakening investment incentives for diverse, domestically sourced generation technologies including advanced nuclear, geothermal, and hydrogen while reinforcing U.S. manufacturing through domestic content incentives.
- Jeopardize more than $125 billion in announced investments across 15+ states including Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas, and Arizona.
- Put up to 100,000 direct jobs at risk and hundreds of thousands more when accounting for indirect impacts.”
Signed by 23 military leaders, many of which have been with the ESLC since its creation 20 years ago, the letter concludes, “As a non-partisan group, we acknowledge the need to reduce spending and address the crisis posed by the national debt—but it is counterproductive to try to strengthen our economy by taking actions that directly erode its foundations. Repealing or weakening these provisions would not only stall the growth of critical industries—it would leave the United States vulnerable to supply chain manipulation by hostile regimes and further delay efforts to rebuild the nation’s defense industrial base. At a time when the United States faces unprecedented global competition and strategic uncertainty, this is a risk we cannot afford.”
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About SAFE
SAFE is an action-oriented, nonpartisan organization committed to transportation, energy, and supply chain policies that advance the economic and national security of the United States, its partners, and allies. Since 2004, SAFE has worked with its Energy Security Leadership Council—a peerless coalition of current and former Fortune 500 CEOs and retired 4-star admirals and generals—to support secure, resilient, and responsible energy solutions. Learn more at SecureEnergy.org.
