WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper recently joined his Democratic Senate Democratic colleagues in introducing the Lowering Electric Bills Act, which would restore the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) clean energy tax credits and lower energy costs for working families. Last month, Republicans stripped funding for the IRA’s clean energy tax credits in their budget reconciliation bill.
“Republicans promised to help working Americans, then wiped out the investments that make electricity more affordable and support millions of American jobs,” said Hickenlooper. “Abandoning our booming clean energy economy won’t bring us closer to energy independence, and certainly won’t help working people.”
The Republican budget bill guts hundreds of billions in Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) clean energy investments, including tax credits for wind and solar. The cuts will increase the average American’s electricity bills between $100-400 per year, force an estimated 300 U.S. factories to close or never open, and eliminate 830,000 American jobs by 2030.
The Lowering Electric Bills Act would restore three critical tax credits that Republicans decimated or fully eliminated in their budget bill. Restoring these credits would help all clean energy technologies including wind, energy storage, rooftop solar and more.
Hickenlooper, who sits on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, led a straightforward amendment to the Republican budget bill to protect the IRA’s residential clean energy credit. Republicans blocked his amendment and voted to raise prices on working families.
Full text of the bill is available HERE.
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