First, I have to say I was really surprised to see Fox’s senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram tweeting a little after five o’clock in the morning, that the House was just voting on the budget bill.
Surely, I thought, this is a holdover from last night.
But no. At the time, it said the Xweet was only 22 seconds old.
What on earth?
House now voting on Big, Beautiful Bill. Massie, Davidson are nays already
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) May 22, 2025
And then shortly thereafter, a new Xweet that it had passed.
House now voting on Big, Beautiful Bill. Massie, Davidson are nays already
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) May 22, 2025
Well, monkey’s uncle – did they stay there all night or what?
The Bossman says that’s exactly what they did, and how about them apples?
There had been so much horse trading going on all week, and an enormous amount of inaccurate or frankly misleading information coming out of both members and the press, that I had no idea what a final product – if they got to one – would look like.
One thing I had heard that really frosted my shorts was that some of those standing in the way of getting a bill through were the last remnants of the old guard RINO/GOPe. Rumor had it they were basically torpedoing anything meant to undo the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) clean energy/Green grifting subsidies already baked into the system. They wanted those handouts to continue in perpetuity, I guess.
I was already royally pissed off enough about the blue state Republicans soaking the rest of us for increased state and local tax carveouts (SALT) – now up to a $40K deduction – so I figured the chance of killing any Biden green grift would be a bridge too far.
Talk about your pleasant surprise!
Popped over to check CNBC to see how the markets were handling the budget news before the bell, when what to my wondering eyes did appear?
But a tiny, sad headline that brought on a tear.
Solar stocks plunge as Republican tax bill worse than feared for clean energy
SAY, WHUT?!
Solar stocks plunged premarket on Thursday after House Republicans passed a tax bill that terminates key clean energy credits.
Residential solar installer Sunrun plummeted more than 35%. The legislation ends tax credits for installers like Sunrun that lease equipment to customers.
The GOP bill is a “worse than feared” scenario for clean energy, as it takes a “sledgehammer” to the Inflation Reduction Act, Jefferies analysts led by Julien Dumoulin-Smith told clients in a note.
Some 70% of the rooftop solar industry now uses lease arrangements, making the bill disastrous for companies like Sunrun, Guggenheim analyst Joseph Osha told clients.
Not just rooftop solar, either. The big, fugly farms are on notice the free ride is about over.
…The bill also ends the investment and electricity production credits for clean energy facilities that begin construction 60 days after the legislation is enacted or enter service after Dec. 31, 2028. Those credits have played a key role in the rapid expansion of utility-scale solar projects in the U.S.
And holy smoking solar panels. As Billy Mayes always said:
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
The bill ends the 30% installation tax credit homeowners are supposed to get for rooftop (I have read of many instances where that hasn’t happened, thanks to the sketchy companies involved and fancy paperwork shuffling).
A note of caution in the midst of this continuing and welcome breaking news – these measures all have to make it through the Senate’s version of the bill, and the renewable lobby is banking on being able to save a good number of them. Considering the squishes we have there, I can understand their confidence, and it tempers my joy somewhat, but not entirely.
So, let’s continue, shall we?
Another absolutely delightful item, should it survive the Senate, would be waving goodbye to the $7500 EV subsidy at the end of the year. That is scheduled to ride into the sunset in this House version.
NEWS: The House has passed President Trump’s tax bill, which means the $7,500 Federal EV credit is one step closer to being canceled. The bill now goes to the Senate, where if it passes, the EV credit will officially end on December 31, 2025.
Some solar company stocks plunged up… pic.twitter.com/BbO1872BQQ
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 22, 2025
As you might imagine, the solar industry is hitting back. They’re citing the number of job losses possible and the fact that many of the industry storage facilities are in red states that voted for Trump.
A Republican-backed budget bill that rolls back clean energy incentives to pay for tax cuts could jeopardize nearly 300,000 jobs and some 287 solar and storage factories across the country, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
The bill passed out of the House Budget Committee over the weekend and will be considered by the House Rules Committee early Wednesday morning.
“If this proposal becomes law, nearly 300 U.S. factories — mostly in red states — could close or never open, and we simply won’t have the energy we need to power American innovation in AI and data centers,” SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper said in a statement Tuesday.
I think they’re stretching it a bit to claim AI will never come about without solar. For one thing, nuclear cleans solar’s clock in every single metric.
I hate the term “clean energy.”
Solar and wind are only considered to be “clean energy” sources because of their low carbon load. Other environmental impacts are seldom, if ever considered.
This characterization rests on the [false] premise that colorless, odorless carbon… pic.twitter.com/IJa8khtXuW
— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) May 21, 2025
One nuclear reactor. How many solar panels are necessary for an array of any size that cannot be recycled and would leach toxic chemicals if a hailstorm comes by?
They’re debating how much they’re going to need to cover what they’re ‘retiring’ power generation-wise in Pennsylvania right now.
Solar Panels Needed Would Cover Three Pennsylvania Counties pic.twitter.com/1CfEt0mrxK
— The Center Square (@thecentersquare) May 22, 2025
Oh, yeah. Pretty many.
For another, the renewables sector was already in terrible shape before Trump got elected, so this could well be end-stage bravado speaking. The entire green/clean energy industry has never once had to stand on its own and is proving incapable of doing so.
…“Developers have built $145 billion in solar, wind and battery-storage projects since expanded federal tax credits were approved in 2022, while manufacturers have invested $73 billion in 94 factories that are now operating,” Jennifer Hiller from the Wall Street Journal wrote this week, noting that what the House lawmakers are doing with the budget reconciliation bill could put an end to all this, threatening the survival of these industries.
Not only this, but state governments are appearing to turn on wind, solar, EV batteries, and anything else transition-related, tightening rules for capacity buildouts and getting more selective with the permitting. It sounds really bad for the industries concerned. However, the alarm among them begs one question: if they are, indeed, thriving, can they not keep thriving in a less-subsidized environment?
Hiller’s statement about the expansion of wind, solar, and battery storage is telling. That $145 billion worth of capacity was built in the two years since the Biden administration supercharged subsidy support with some $400 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips and Science Act. And even with that level of support, as much as 40% of projects announced following the IRA got delayed, some of them indefinitely, as the Financial Times reported last year.
These facts do not paint the picture of a “booming business”. Rather, they paint the picture of a business environment carefully crafted and nourished selectively to survive against competition that obeys market conditions. Wind, solar, EVs, and batteries were picked as the winners in a race where all other participants followed one set of rules while the chosen ones followed their own special set of rules, involving pretty much unconditional support, while others became subjects of increasingly tighter regulation.
What is happening now is the pendulum swinging back, plain and simple. Local communities across the United States are fighting back against wind turbines and solar panels on their lands, and state and local governments are running out of money to subsidize EV sales or solar installations. Meanwhile, the drawbacks of alternative energy sources have become more obvious now that there is so much capacity around.
The renewables industry is entirely built on the back of the American taxpayer, who is tired of carrying the load on both ends, from subsidizing their manufacturing to outrageous electrical bills in the payoff for subpar reliability when utility companies and state boards make a deal on the installation side.
Americans are also over tyrannical cultists in government mandating that we buy a product we’ve paid to manufacture, which no one wants.
It’s ludicrous.
Time to be done with this fantasy and get back to reliable energy sources with updated technology that makes them cleaner and even more efficient.
And figure out how the hell we’re going to dispose of or recycle the toxic crap we’re already stuck with thanks to this unconscionable fraud.
The measures contained in the Big Beautiful Bill coming out of the House this morning were a Big Beautiful Bounce towards a return to sanity and energy security.
I’ll be watching the Senate to see who spikes what.
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