Senate Finance Committee Bill Text Would Hike Energy Costs, Destroy Jobs
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Washington, D.C. — Republican members of the Senate Committee on Finance released their text for the budget reconciliation bill, which would raise energy costs and destroy manufacturing jobs in their own states and across the country. Attacks on clean energy have already threatened or canceled more than 90,000 jobs, and with this proposal, 400,000 more are at risk of being destroyed. Repealing clean energy tax credits would raise electricity prices for American households by more than $110 per year next year and nearly $400 in the next decade.
Climate Power Executive Director Lori Lodes issued the following statement:
“Republican Senators on the Finance Committee are creating an energy crisis to pay for tax breaks for billionaires. Their proposal will send utility bills through the roof, ship hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs to China, and create an American energy shortage when demand is higher than ever and growing.
“Senate Republicans have gone on the record touting clean energy projects and showed up at ribbon cuttings, but now they are on the verge of destroying the jobs and investments that are helping communities in their states thrive. Republican Senators still have a chance to choose economic growth and energy dominance over the interests of their billionaire donors. If not, there is no doubt their constituents will remember.”
Clean energy is the fastest and cheapest way to meet our growing energy demand; however, today, Republican Senators on the Finance Committee proposed budget language that tries to crush wind and solar energy production while giving even more tax loopholes to oil industry billionaires.
- Solar, wind, and battery storage accounted for 93% of the new American energy supply in 2024 and are expected to account for a similar amount of new generating capacity in 2025.
- Solar and wind energy are being deployed about five times faster than all other energy sources combined.
- Solar farms generally take 8 to 18 months to complete, and wind farms can be built in 6 to 9 months.
- Competition and high costs for gas turbines, construction labor shortages, and tariffs mean that new gas-fired power plants would need at least seven years to get online.
- Clean power sources generated 51 percent of all U.S. electricity supplies in March 2025, the first time clean power sources have surpassed fossil fuels.
- The cost of solar and wind power has dropped so much that it is now 50% cheaper than electricity from fossil fuels.
*Increased Household Energy Spending Per Year In 2030 And 2035