The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), several clean energy groups, and representatives from utilities and businesses in the energy sector lobbied on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tax credits. Aside from SEIA, other groups included the National Hydropower Association, Oceantic Network, Climate Power, U.S. Green Building Council, Clean Energy for America, E2, Business Council for Sustainable Energy, and Impact Capital Managers.
Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to halt IRA funding and is expected to urge Congress to make cuts to the legislation.
The lobbying groups represented over 2,000 companies and hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment, bringing industry representatives there for “over 100 meetings,” per SEIA.
SEIA also sent a letter with approximately 1,500 signatures from solar and storage companies to each congressional office, urging lawmakers to keep solar and storage and manufacturing credits in any tax package that may move forward.
According to Utility Dive, the letter stressed the implications of IRA fund freezing on the job market, most notably those that have expanded due to critical power needs and the onshoring of clean energy manufacturing.
In a statement, Bob Keefe, executive director of E2 said, “Businesses across America right now are just breaking ground or finalizing plans for hundreds of factories and projects that will manufacture the solar panels, batteries and other Made-in-America equipment and deploy the energy we need to meet the exploding demand for electricity across the economy. Now’s not the time to undermine the federal policies driving this economic boom and the hundreds of thousands of jobs it’s creating.”
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