The GOP’s big spending bill could kill renewable energy projects

https://www.theverge.com/news/696047/senate-republican-spending-bill-passage-renewable-wind-solar-energy

by theverge

5 comments

  1. Senate Republicans today passed a sweeping spending bill that narrowly avoided punitive tax measures on renewable energy but still threatens to stall its growth in the US.

    The bill nearly passed with a measure that could have devastated renewable energy companies. On Friday night, a surprise proposal was added for an excise tax on solar and wind projects. The tax would have essentially penalized developers who failed to meet requirements barring “material assistance from prohibited foreign entities.” In other words, they’d have needed to prove that their supply chains weren’t tainted by any materials or business ties to foreign governments the Trump administration deemed unacceptable — including China, which dominates supply chains for solar components and wind turbines. “It’s almost spiteful,” Keohane says of the plan.

    The proposed tax was dropped this morning. But some advocates worry that introducing and removing the excise tax was a red herring, drawing attention away from other measures that could still derail renewable energy projects.

    Read more from Justine Calma: [https://www.theverge.com/news/696047/senate-republican-spending-bill-passage-renewable-wind-solar-energy](https://www.theverge.com/news/696047/senate-republican-spending-bill-passage-renewable-wind-solar-energy)

  2. Getting rid of the credits isn’t the kill shot that the original version was, but it’s pretty bad.

    The bill they passed is absolutely going to increase your power bill and decrease your grid reliability. 

    Even if a future Congress undoes it, the possibility of this occurring will chill future investments, and lead to under building of new generation capacity.

    There isn’t any alternative to renewables which can be deployed fast enough to meet demand anymore, so taxing renewable capacity is essentially a tax on new electricity generation. 

  3. Solar will still be nearly the only thing installed, it’s just going to cost everyone more.

  5. The democrats are just going to one up Trump on China bashing anyways.

    The future for renewables is bleak in the US because the US would rather engage in economic self sabotage just to hurt China.

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