Big, Beautiful Bill

House Republicans have advanced President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” out of committee, but conservatives are still demanding even larger cuts to Medicaid and clean energy. The bill still has to pass the Senate, where it also faces opposition.

In its current form, the bill contains a number of provisions that could have widespread implications for clean energy projects and domestic cleantech manufacturing.

• The residential solar investment tax credit would expire on December 31, 2025, instead of 2032.
• The commercial and industrial Clean Electricity Investment Credit for technology-neutral “qualified facility and energy storage technology” would be phased out more gradually. Energy Sage
• Nearly 11 GW of onshore wind was slated to come on line between 2025 and 2027, but these projects “may struggle to meet the new criteria for tax credit eligibility, potentially disrupting financing and investment planning.” Windtech International
• The Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credit (AMPTC), which was created through the Inflation Reduction Act to increase domestic manufacturing of clean energy components, would be phased out for wind power components by 2027 and other components by 2031. Tax Foundation

Other News

• Offshore wind takes an even harder hit. Developer Equinor is poised to cancel the Empire Wind project off the coast of New York, a month after the Trump administration issued a stop-work order on it. MSN
• The oil industry isn’t doing great either. Low oil prices threaten to make drilling unprofitable. Reuters
• Some good news: EVs are charging forward globally. More than 1 in 4 cars sold around the world in 2025 will be electric. In China, “nearly half the cars sold in 2024 were electric … more than the entire world sold just two years earlier.” Electrek
• Globally, renewables will become even more competitive in 2025. Even without subsidies, new solar plants are “within touching distance” of new U.S. natural gas power plants. Given that domestic gas prices are much lower than in other parts of the world, solar may “become even more compelling in the coming years, especially if the US starts exporting liquified natural gas and exposes its protected gas market to global price competition.” BloombergNEF
• General Motors is innovating on batteries. GM believes it has solved the lifespan problems of lithium manganese-rich (LMR) batteries. This could “cut hundreds of pounds from its large EVs” and greatly increase range, especially for trucks. NBC News
• Concrete balls on the ocean floor? The Fraunhofer Institute is testing a new way to store energy off the coast of California. New Atlas