A Brief Overview of Major US Clean Energy Tax Policy (2005–2025)

The chart, produced by the center-left think tank Third Way, Roselle LLP, and Princeton’s REPEAT Project, outlines the evolution of major U.S. clean energy tax policies from 2005 through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) of 2025, highlighting a significantly more challenging and uncertain environment for clean energy development following OBBBA. While the IRA introduced long-term, technology-neutral credits, targeted incentives, and innovative market flexibility through transferability and direct pay, OBBBA introduces numerous new constraints. From terminating or phasing down key credits to adding complex and expansive restrictions tied to Foreign Entities of Concern (FEOC), this pivot away from stable, long-term incentives towards a patchwork of sunsets, eligibility restrictions, and geopolitical filters, injects considerable policy risk and uncertainty into clean energy investment planning, undermining the predictability that the IRA had sought to create.