What’s In Republicans’ Reconciliation Bill (And Why It’s A Disaster)

The Republicans’ budget package is a disaster for American families, workers, and the economy. By gutting the clean energy incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that have catalyzed record investment, the bill kneecaps new projects just as demand is rising. New modeling tells us that the damage over the next decade will be staggering–household energy bills will spike, the US will lose over 800,000 jobs, and we’ll take a $1.1 trillion hit to our economy. Here are some of the most damaging provisions that you should pay attention to:

1. Sunsetting Tech-Neutral Clean Energy Tax Credits: The bill pulls the plug on tech-neutral tax credits that are simple, flexible, and designed to support a diverse range of technologies. By ending them early, Republicans are creating uncertainty, stalling investment, and sending a clear message that the US is not serious about building.
2. Cutting Consumer Energy Benefits: Republicans’ bill strips away incentives that help families and businesses install cost-saving technologies like heat pumps, rooftop solar, and energy-efficient appliances. This sends energy bills higher, not lower.
3. Eliminating Transferability: Raising capital for clean energy projects is hard, especially for newer companies building large, complex infrastructure. The IRA helped unlock the financing needed to get projects off the ground by introducing transferability, which allows developers to sell their tax credits for cash upfront. By repealing transferability, Republicans are quietly killing projects before they ever get built.
4. Slashing the Loan Programs Office: The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office is one of the most powerful tools the government has to move American innovations and lab breakthroughs to the commercial market. Cutting the Loan Programs Office means fewer projects get off the ground, and countries like China fill in the gaps in the market.
5. Adding Unworkable Restrictions: Under the guise of being tough on China, Republicans have added sweeping Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) restrictions that require companies to prove that no part of their supply chain, down to the smallest component or software, has any ownership or control ties to China. In reality, these rules are too broad and vague for American companies to meet. This means projects will stall and capital will dry up.

A Knock-Out Punch for Nuclear Energy

The House bill, if passed as written, will wipe out America’s advanced nuclear industry just as it’s getting off the ground. Real, tangible projects are entering permitting. Utilities are lining up to deploy new designs. Capital is flowing in. And just as the US nuclear industry is reaching a cusp, the House bill pulls the rug out from under the entire sector. Here’s how:

1. Cutting Off Critical Capital: Advanced nuclear projects are already difficult to finance due to their long timelines, high upfront costs, and strict regulations. Transferability gave developers an easy way to raise capital and catalyze additional financing. Without it, nuclear projects can’t raise the money they need to build.
2. Unworkable Supply Chain Rules: New FEOC restrictions are so sweeping and undefined that no nuclear developer can realistically comply. Until Treasury issues guidance–which will take years–this provision stops nuclear projects altogether.