House Passed Tax Plan Will Raise Costs, Surrender Jobs, Increase Pollution

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Today, House Republicans voted to pass a tax bill that effectively ends incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles, undermining an American-made energy boom while raising costs for businesses and families and increasing harmful pollution in communities across the country.

“This bill is an ugly mess for companies and workers, families and communities,” said Joanna Slaney, vice president for political and government affairs at Environmental Defense Fund. “Its nearly full repeal of the tax credits that help the U.S. produce some of the world’s cleanest energy would raise household electricity prices, create uncertainty for businesses, send jobs to other countries and threaten people’s health with more pollution. The repeal also would dramatically limit the ability of new energy projects to come online. The U.S. needs clean energy to meet growing demands, and solar and storage are adding energy to the grid faster than all other sources combined.

“Among this bill’s many harmful provisions are sweeping attacks on vehicle standards aimed at reducing expensive fuel use and tailpipe pollution and local efforts promoting cleaner air around schools and ports. The largest polluting oil and gas companies also would receive a 10-year reprieve from paying a fee on wasteful methane pollution, which would cause irreversible damage to our climate and public health. There’s nothing beautiful about it.”

Repealing the clean energy tax incentives would increase cumulative household energy costs by $32 billion over the next decade while costing the U.S. roughly 700,000 jobs. It also will add more than 530 million metric tons of climate pollution, equal to adding 116 million cars to the road.

EDF recently published a blog about how House Republicans’ tax plan will raise costs, surrender jobs and increase pollution.