GOP to destroy the IRA, largely at the expense of their own constituents

Climate change denialism is a major part of the Republican turn against any kind of expertise, and above all else it owns the libs. So undoing the major climate bill passed under Biden is a Republican priority up there with taking health insurance away from people, and they don’t care of they have to hurt their own voters to do it [gift link]:

Sprawling wind farms in Wyoming. A huge solar factory expansion in Georgia. Lithium mines in Nevada. Vacuums that suck carbon from the air in Louisiana.

Over the past three years, companies have made plans to invest more than $843 billion across the United States in projects aimed at reducing planet-warming emissions, driven by lucrative tax credits for clean energy provided by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

But only about $321 billion of that money has actually been spent, with many projects still on the drawing board, according to data made public on Tuesday by the Clean Investment Monitor, a joint project of the Rhodium Group and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Now, much of the rest, about $522 billion, will depend on action playing out on Capitol Hill. Starting on Tuesday, Republicans in Congress will begin a contentious debate over proposals to roll back tax credits for low-carbon energy as they search for ways to pay for a roughly $4 trillion tax cut package favored by President Trump.

A draft bill issued on Monday by Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee would effectively end most of the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax incentives.

A tax credit for low-carbon electricity sources like wind, solar, nuclear or geothermal power would be phased out over the next few years. Rebates for consumers to buy electric vehicles would mostly disappear by the end of 2025. Tax breaks for domestic factories that make batteries or solar panels would end by 2031 and would contain new restrictions that could make them extremely difficult to access. Incentives for producing hydrogen fuels would end this year.

While shrinking those tax credits could help Republicans save hundreds of billions of dollars, it could also cause companies to abandon plans for new nuclear reactors or battery factories. More than three-quarters of pending investments were planned in Republican-held congressional districts.

It’s hard to overstate just how bad the reconciliation bill is going to be, which is why Republicans are floating false stories about tax increases to gullible reporters.