INDUSTRY HONES IRA ASKS: Seven energy industry groups urged Senate leaders Monday to rethink changes to the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean electricity investment tax credit, which they said is “effectively” eliminated by the House-passed megabill.
The letter — shared first with ME — argues the House bill would “freeze investment in hundreds of gigawatts” of energy projects, particularly in the battery storage sector that is helping shore up the grid amid increasing reliability threats. “The House-passed language amounts to the single largest nationwide utility bill increase in American history,” wrote the groups, which range from the critical minerals to solar sectors.
The groups support a “broad foreign entity prohibition” on the ownership level, but urged a “delayed or phased-in approach” if the rules are to be applied to the supply chain. And they commended the House for restoring transferability for the investment tax credit in the final version of the bill, a departure from the Ways and Means draft.
Hitting the airwaves: One of the letter’s signatories, the energy security group SAFE, launched a high-six figure ad buy Monday making the case that preserving the IRA credits is critical to national security. In the ads running on TV and digital in five states, former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair argues that “China knows that secure energy and manufacturing define global power” and the U.S. needs to preserve the tools to stay in the race.
