House GOP members fight for Biden-era energy spending, including in WA

Believe it or not, Republicans love renewable energy.

How it’s packaged matters, though. Just don’t mention climate change.

Instead try phrases like “America First,” “national energy dominance” and “all-of-the-above energy approach.”

That’s how 21 House Republicans crafted a letter to the chairman of their Ways & Means Committee earlier this month.

Those Republicans, including Washington’s Rep. Dan Newhouse, want to protect a series of financial incentives from a conservative party, led by President Donald Trump, that is increasingly hostile toward climate change and science. Many of these incentives come from Biden-era policies, which Trump appears set on reducing or eliminating entirely.

Whether this small band of Republicans and their allies succeed will depend, in no small part, on how they frame the issue. That means distancing themselves from language around climate change or even electrification, said Aseem Prakash, a political scientist with the University of Washington.

“Call it anything you want. Call it Donald Trumpification,” Prakash said. “We just need to move away from fossil fuels and expand solar and wind.” 

America needs much more electricity, particularly renewable energy free of greenhouse gas emissions. And one of former president Joe Biden’s crowning achievements, the Inflation Reduction Act, spread billions of dollars across the country for that purpose in the form of tax credits, grants and other incentives.

Many Republican states sit ahead of the curve, though. Solidly Republican Texas, Iowa and Oklahoma are the top three wind-producing states in the union. Kansas, which has a Democratic governor but Republican-majority statehouse, sits in fourth place. Only Illinois in fifth place is a solidly Democratic state. 

And even as officials in the Republican Florida scrubbed mention of climate change from their policies, the state is still emerging as a national leader in solar power alongside Texas and California. Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana are rapidly growing in that sector as well, Canary Media reported.

The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act has been crucial for this boom in renewable and clean energy. By some estimates that spending package could amount to as much as a $1.2 trillion for the sector in the years ahead. So far, about 80% of the investments linked to the IRA have gone to Republican districts, The New York Times reported.

Dissonance arises, however, with Trump. He refers to climate policies as the “green new scam.” He’s blocked permits for wind turbines, frozen federal grants for electrification projects and his administration is actively dismantling its own ability to regulate planet-warming greenhouse gases and firing scientists who study the effects of climate change.

What the president wants, he says, is “energy dominance” and a resurgence of fossil fuels like oil and natural gas.

But Newhouse, whose district covers much of Central Washington including Yakima and the Tri-Cities, and 20 other House Republicans see some middle ground there. In their letter to U.S. Rep. Jason Smith — who chairs the chamber’s committee with jurisdiction over the tax credits — Trump’s approach can (and should) include renewables, the representatives wrote.

The House Republicans support Trump’s “America First national energy dominance initiative,” the letter reads. At the same time, the country needs energy expansion and innovation for national security, the economy and to “guarantee energy independence.” 

Their districts and the energy industry are “concerned about disruptive changes to our nation’s energy tax structure,” the letter continues.

His second day in office, Trump froze payouts from the Inflation Reduction Act. While a federal judge ordered the president to resume the payments, the future of the act remains in question.

Neither Newhouse, Smith or several other Republicans who signed on to the letter responded to a request for comment. White House officials could not be reached for comment.

Any changes to the incentive structure across the country, on which developers had planned their futures, will risk sparking an American “energy crisis” and raise electricity prices for families, the House Republicans continued. Affordable and abundant energy will be critical to the Trump administration’s desire to increase domestic manufacturing, supply chains and boost job creation, particularly in Republican states.

But the money has also helped blue states like Washington. It subsidizes large-scale projects like wind and solar farms but it also helps utilities like Seattle City Light reduce emissions from large buildings. Even individuals have cashed in on a 30% tax credit for their own solar systems, said Charlee Thompson, a policy analyst for the NW Energy Coalition.

All that extra funding helps Washington toward its Clean Energy Transformation Act requirement to free the electrical grid of greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, Thompson said. It also compounds with the money raised by the Climate Commitment Act vaulting the state closer toward its goal of cutting emissions 95% by 2050, said Joe Nguyen, director of Washington's Department of Commerce.

Nguyen called that funding combination “transformative,” and something that gives Washington an advantage over other states.

But whether Washington is on track to meet its goals remains something of a matter for debate. The state isn’t yet replacing lost coal or natural gas plants fast enough to meet increasing energy demand. And the increasing prevalence of data centers to fuel power-hungry artificial intelligence is widening that gap. 

Developers are proposing new wind, solar and battery projects in Washington (including in Newhouse’s district); some are waiting to see whether Inflation Reduction Act funding will remain available to them.

The House Republicans asked that any changes to the tax code leave alone any current or future private sector investments, the letter says.

Considering the letter’s tone, political scientist Prakash said he understood the approach. They’re trying to defend climate policies without calling them that. Instead they discuss job creation, economic stimulus, self-sufficiency.

They’re speaking Trump’s language, appealing to his ego, Prakash said.

“You know what buttons to push,” he said. “Push them.

Others could take note of the approach, Prakash said. The cost of solar and wind are down (and falling), especially compared with fossil fuels like coal and natural gas. The technology is rapidly improving. The momentum for expansion is there, all across the country. But under the Trump administration, certain language is an automatic nonstarter.

“Don’t fly the climate flag,” Prakash said. “Be a bit more strategic instead of being emotional.”

The March 9 letter from the House Republicans shows that there are limits to the types of tax cuts they’d support. Whether their lobbying efforts are successful, though, remains to be seen. House leaders have said they want to have a tax cut plan on Trump’s desk by Memorial Day, around which time a clearer picture will emerge about the future of the Inflation Reduction Act.