House Republicans plan to help pay for an extension of President Donald Trump’s massive tax cuts by clawing back unused funds from scores of programs and grants in his predecessor’s signature climate law.
Billions of dollars allocated under former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act would be rescinded under a portion of Trump’s sweeping tax package released by a key House committee on Sunday. That includes funds channeled to the Energy Department’s $400 billion green bank loan program, and to industrial facilities to help lower their greenhouse gas emissions, according to a GOP summary of the House energy and commerce committee’s portion of the bill.
“The legislation would reverse the most reckless parts of the engorged climate spending in the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, returning $6.5 billion in unspent funds,” Representative Brett Guthrie, a Kentucky Republican who chairs the committee, wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
The Republican plan also calls for revoking unused funds from more than a dozen divisions within the Energy Department. The Office of Minority Economic Impact, which helps minorities compete for agency grants and contracts, would see nearly $2.8 billion pulled, while the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which has funded technological research in projects like plug-in electric trucks, would lose $402 million. Unspent EPA grants for electric trucks, environmental justice, reducing air pollution at schools, and other programs would also be rescinded.
The bill, which is almost certain to be changed by the Senate if it passes the House, would also repeal auto pollution and fuel economy standards, which were finalized by the Biden administration last year, and delay by 10 years the collection of a fee on methane emissions from oil and gas producers.
The legislation would also include $2 billion to help shore up the nation’s depleted Strategic Petroleum Reserve and mandate the Energy Department automatically approve applications to export liquefied natural gas to those that pay a $1 million fee.
The proposal was met with alarm from climate groups like Evergreen Action, which said the plan would make deep cuts to vital clean energy and pollution-fighting programs.
“Republicans are once again siding with corporate polluters and billionaires over working families,” Executive Director Lena Moffitt said in a statement. “This is all so they can offer tax giveaways to the rich and prop up the profits of the fossil fuel industry.”
Ultimately, House Republicans are aiming for a total of $2 trillion in spending reductions paired with a $4.5 trillion in reduced revenue from tax cuts.
