Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Energy

House Passes IRA-Killing Tax Bill

On the tax bill, FEMA, and Puerto Rican solar

House Passes IRA-Killing Tax Bill
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: A late-season nor’easter could bring minor flooding to the Boston areaIt’s clear and sunny today in Erbil, Iraq, where the country’s first entirely off-grid, solar-powered village is now operatingThursday will finally bring a break from severe storms in the U.S., which has seen 280 tornadoes more than the historical average this year.

THE TOP FIVE

1. House GOP passes reconciliation bill after late-night tweaks to clean energy tax credits

The House passed the sweeping “big, beautiful” tax bill early Thursday morning in a 215-214 vote, mostly along party lines. Republican Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio voted no, while House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris of Maryland voted “present;” two additional Republicans didn’t vote.

The bill will effectively kill the Inflation Reduction Act, as my colleague Emily Pontecorvo has written — although the Wednesday night manager’s amendment included some tweaks to how, exactly, as well as a few concessions to moderates. Updates include:

  • Projects must begin construction within 60 days and be placed into service before the end of 2028 to take advantage of clean energy tax credits.
  • The rollback of credits is kinder to advanced nuclear reactors, as Emily notes. Instead of facing a 2028 deadline for being placed into service, nuclear developers have access to tax credits so long as they begin construction before the start of 2029, though “good luck banking a nascent nuclear renaissance on that,” Princeton professor and Heatmap’s Shift Key podcast co-host Jesse Jenkins noted on Bluesky. The tax credit for existing nuclear reactors now phases out at the end of 2031, rather than 2029.
  • Transferability, which allows project developers to sell credits on an open market, will henceforth only be permitted for nuclear energy. My colleague Katie Brigham has covered what that means for tax credit marketplaces like Crux.
  • The Office of Management and Budget is granted $100 million to advance deregulation, including at the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.
  • In another win for moderates and Democrats, led by former Secretary of the Interior and Montana Republican Ryan Zinke, an amendment also removed a proposal to sell off thousands of acres of land in Nevada and Utah. “Public lands are not a luxury or bargaining chip in budget negotiations. They are owned by every American and cherished by residents and visitors alike,” Greater Yellowstone Coalition Executive Director Scott Christensen said in a statement celebrating the move.

The bill now heads to the Senate — where more negotiations will almost certainly follow — with Republicans aiming to have it on President Trump’s desk by July 4.

2. FEMA cancels 4-year strategic plan, axing focus on ‘climate resilience’

The combative new acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, David Richardson, rescinded the organization’s four-year strategic plan on Wednesday, per Wired. Though the document, which was set to expire at the end of 2026, does not address specific procedures for given disasters, it does lay out goals and objectives for the agency, including “lead whole of community in climate resilience” and “install equality as a foundation of emergency management.” In axing the strategic plan, Richardson told staff that the document “contains goals and objectives that bear no connection to FEMA accomplishing its mission.”

A FEMA employee who spoke with Wired stressed that while rescinding the plan does not have immediate operational impacts, it can still have “big downstream effects.” Another characterized the move by the administration as symbolic: “There are very real changes that have been made that touch on [equity and climate change] that are more important than the document itself.”

3. Energy Department redirects Puerto Rican rooftop solar investment to upkeep of fossil fuel plants

The U.S. federal government is redirecting a $365 million investment in rooftop solar power in Puerto Rico to instead maintain the island’s fossil fuel-powered grid, the Department of Energy announced Wednesday. The award, which dates to the Biden administration, was intended to provide stable power to Puerto Ricans, who have become accustomed to blackouts due to damaged and outdated infrastructure. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority declared bankruptcy in 2017, and a barrage of major hurricanes — most notably 2017’s Hurricane Maria — have destabilized the island’s grid, Reuters reports.

In Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s statement, he said the funds will go toward “dispatching baseload generation units, supporting vegetation control to protect transmission lines, and upgrading aging infrastructure.” But Javier Rúa Jovet, a public policy director for Puerto Rico’s Solar and Energy Storage Association, added to The Associated Press that “There is nothing faster and better than solar batteries.”

4. EDF, Shell, and others to collaborate on hydrogen emission tracker

The Environmental Defense Fund announced Wednesday that it is launching an international research initiative to track hydrogen emissions from North American and European facilities, in partnership with Shell, TotalEnergies, Air Products, and Air Liquide, as well as other academic and technology partners. Hydrogen is an indirect greenhouse gas that, through chemical reactions, can affect the lifetime and abundances of planet-warming gases like methane and ozone. Despite being a “leak-prone gas,” hydrogen emissions have been poorly studied.

“As hydrogen becomes an increasingly important part of the energy system, developing a robust, data-driven understanding of its emissions is essential to supporting informed decisions and guiding future investments in the sector,” Steven Hamburg, the chief scientist and senior vice president of EDF, said in a statement. Notably, EDF took a similar approach to tracking methane over a decade ago and ultimately exposed that emissions were “a far greater threat” than official government estimates suggested.

5. The best-selling SUV in America will now be available only as a hybrid

Toyota

The bestselling SUV in America, the Toyota RAV4, will be available only as a hybrid beginning with the 2026 model, Car and Driver reports. The car will be available both as a conventional hybrid and as a plug-in that works with CCS-compatible DC fast chargers, meaning “owners can quickly fill up its battery during long road trips” to minimize their fossil fuel mileage, The Verge adds. The RAV4 will also beat the Prius for electric range, hitting up to 50 miles before its gas engine kicks in.

Toyota’s move might not come as a complete surprise given that the automaker already introduced a hybrid-only lineup for its Camry. But given the popularity of the RAV4, Car and Driver notes that “if you ever wondered whether or not hybrids have entered the mainstream yet, perhaps this could be a tipping point.”

THE KICKER

Nathan Hurner/USFWS

The Fish Lake Valley tui chub, a small minnow threatened by farming and mining activity, could become the first species to be listed as endangered under the second Trump administration.

Yellow

You’re out of free articles.

Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Politics

AM Briefing: Senate Finance Puts Its Spin on IRA Tax Credit Cuts

On the Senate Finance Committee’s budget proposal, the NRC, and fossil-fuel financing

Senate Finance Puts Its Spin on IRA Tax Credit Cuts
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: A brush fire that prompted evacuations in Maui on Sunday and Monday is now 93% containedThe Des Moines metro area issued its first-ever ban on watering lawns due to record nitrate concentrations in nearby riversFor only the fourth time since 1937, Vancouver, British Columbia got no rain at all in the first half of June. The dry streak may finally break tonight.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Senate Slightly Softens House’s Cuts to the IRA

The Senate Finance Committee published its portion of the budget reconciliation bill on Monday night, including details of its highly anticipated plan to revise the nation’s clean energy tax credits. Though the Senate version slightly softens the House’s proposed phase out of tax credits, “the text would still slash many of the signature programs of the Inflation Reduction Act,” my colleagues Emily Pontecorvo and Robinson Meyer write in their breakdown of the bill. Other changes to be aware of include:

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
The Capitol.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The Senate Finance committee published its highly anticipated tax proposal for Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill on Monday night, including a new plan to revise the nation’s clean energy tax credits.

Senate Republicans widened the aperture slightly compared to the House version of the bill, extending tax credits for geothermal energy, batteries, and hydropower, and preserving “transferability” — a crucial rule that allows companies to sell their tax credits for cash — for years to come.

Keep reading...Show less
Sustainability

How Trump’s ‘Golden Share’ Could Lead to Green Steel

Trump just quasi-nationalized U.S. Steel. That could help climate policy later.

Trump surrounded by steel bars.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images/Unsplash

The government is getting into the steel business. The deal between Japan’s Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, long held off by the Biden administration due to national security and economic concerns, may finally happen, and the government will have a seat at the table. And some progressives are smarting over the fact that a Republican did it first.

On Friday, Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel announced “that President Trump has approved the Companies’ historic partnership,” which would include $11 billion in new investments and “a Golden Share to be issued to the U.S. Government” as well as “commitments” that include “domestic production” and “trade matters.”

Keep reading...Show less
Green