Standing With Energy And Labor Groups And Small Business Leaders, Leader Schumer And Senate Democrats Slam The “Big, Ugly Betrayal” For Raising Energy Costs By $170 BILLION For American Families, Killing Almost TWO MILLION Jobs, And Shrinking GDP By $1.1 TRILLION

Washington, D.C. – Today, Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stood with Senators Whitehouse, Markey, and Blunt Rochester and climate and labor groups to expose how the Republican tax scam will decimate the clean energy economy, which would raise energy costs for American families, slash jobs, and shrink our overall GDP while ceding American energy dominance to China.

Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), stood with Senate EPW Ranking Member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), and Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), the League of Conservation Voters, IBEW, and the Montana Renewable Energy Association to expose the cruelty and viciousness of the Republican tax scam, which doggedly attacks the clean energy economy. This “Big, Ugly Betrayal” paves the way for tax cuts for billionaires at the expense of Main Street and American families. If this legislation were to be enacted, it would raise energy costs for American families by almost $170 billion, kill nearly 2 million jobs – including 840,000 jobs from the clean energy cuts alone – and shrink America’s overall GDP by almost one trillion dollars.

Democrats are sounding the alarm out about how the Republican bill puts America last. Not only would it raise costs, this bill puts taxes on over 90% of new electricity and kills the equivalent of 60 nuclear plants of power, ceding American energy dominance to China and shipping American jobs overseas.  

“If you wanted to write a law that surrenders American energy independence to the Chinese Communist Party and to the Chinese government, this is it. Look no further than this bill,” said Senate Democratic Leader Schumer. “We say we need more energy in America. The quickest and best way to get it, the cheapest way to get it, is clean energy, plain and simple. And yet what has happened is this: The House has sent us a bill that kills the tax credits. This is not just a haircut, this is not just a trim — this is death with a dagger through the heart.”

“We have to face the fact that the anti-clean energy provisions of this bill are the product of corruption run amok,” said EPW Ranking Member Whitehouse. “In the wake of Citizens United, the fossil fuel industry succeeded at a hostile takeover of the Republican Party and has spent 15 years blocking bipartisan clean energy legislation that could have solved the climate change problem.  So, in addition to this legislation increasing electric bills by $170 billion, in addition to the loss of millions of jobs, there is also this looming catastrophe as insurance and mortgage markets melt down in the face of climate upheaval.  The cost to American consumers will be extremely, extremely grave.”

“Trump and Republicans have declared war on the green revolution built by and for union workers,” said Senator Markey. “Their anti-climate, anti-science, anti-wind and solar campaign will do nothing to help meet growing energy demands and bring down energy prices for consumers. Instead, it will pad the profits of Big Oil while sacrificing 840,000 jobs in the next five years. Trump and Republicans are selling out the livelihoods of working people and the future of our children, all to pay for tax breaks for the millionaires and billionaires. The fight ahead of us is hard, but the harder the fight, the more important it is that we take it on.”

“I’ve been an advocate for creating good-paying jobs for my entire career,” said Senator Blunt Rochester. “That’s why I was proud to join so many of my colleagues to pass landmark legislation that would create hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs, bolster our economy, and prepare America for the future. This bill doesn’t just take away health care and food assistance from millions of people; it takes away paychecks, too. At a time when costs are up, we should be building on our progress for hardworking Americans, not leaving them out to dry.”  

“The House-passed abomination of a bill is lose, lose, lose for families, businesses, states across the country, and the planet,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at the League of Conservation Voters. “This Big Ugly Bill would kill jobs, raise energy costs for families and businesses already struggling to make ends meet, hurt the reliability of the grid, and threaten our air, water, and lands with increased pollution. Now more than ever, we need to protect the clean energy investments that are already creating good-paying jobs, saving people money, and ensuring that all communities have clean air and water. We applaud Senator Schumer and all the Democratic senators working tirelessly to stop this bill and are with them at every step.”

“Every project that is abandoned because of this bill is a good job cut short, a retirement delayed, and a future held back,” said Dean Warsh, Director of Government Affairs for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. “Defending these tax credits is how the Senate can protect the voters that elected them, preserve the progress that’s already underway, and demonstrate with action that their priority is the American worker.”

“Our association represents 1,000 good paying clean energy careers that could be on the chopping block overnight if federal energy tax credits are repealed,” said Brad Van Wert, Montana Renewable Energy Association. “With energy demand spiking, solar projects are the quickest to come online and we need the business certainty of longer term tax credits to deploy clean energy at the scale that is needed. This is not a partisan issue. This is about hardworking Montanans.”

Data courtesy of Energy Innovation. Full charts available here.

Below is a transcript of Leader Schumer’s remarks at the Press Conference:

One of the greatest accomplishments we had in the Congress — the last Congress — was getting the best pro-environmental bill ever passed through the Congress and signed into law. And one of the mainstays of those provisions was tax credits for clean energy. Tax credits for wind, tax credits for solar, tax credits for hydro — you name it, we put it in there to help clean energy grow. And it was hugely successful.

Originally, we estimated it would be about three hundred and seventy billion dollars would use the tax credits, but it's now close to a trillion. And solar and wind and clean energy are among the fastest growing energy components. We say we need more energy in America. The quickest and best way to get it, the cheapest way to get it, is clean energy, plain and simple. And yet what has happened is this: The House has sent us a bill that kills the program. This is not just a haircut, this is not just a trim — this is death with a dagger through the heart by the provisions they put in, in the dark of night at the last minute. Most House Republicans didn't even know — didn't even know what was going on. And yet these provisions, if passed, would basically end clean energy. You all know what they are, but just listen to the perfidy of this one: If you don't have a new project in the ground sixty days after the bill passes, you get no credits. If you had any relationship in any way with China, even decades ago, you get no credits. By all estimates, it would kill the bill.

So what does this mean? Why do Americans care about this so much? Well, one, it's going to raise their costs dramatically. And we just got new estimates today. We thought originally it would cost Americans about thirty-two billion dollars on their household energy bills. We've gotten a new estimate that it's much, much worse. Unfortunately, $170 billion — it's the new modeling that has come out from one of the most respected modelers called Energy Innovation. And they've been our lodestar for a long time. $170 billion to keep your lights on. Isn't that incredible? Electricity bills would go up more than 10% next year in some states. Republican states — Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina — they go up 15%. And if you live in Kentucky, you can pay $860 more a year. So that's the cost. Second, the jobs. We estimate there are 850,000 clean energy, good-paying jobs in this bill — gone. Gone. That's a load of jobs, and about 70% of them are in red districts. So this is not a Democratic or Republican issue. This is an American issue.

And third, if you wanted to write a law that surrenders American energy independence to the Chinese Communist Party and to the Chinese government, this is it. Look no further than this bill. China is gaining in solar, wants to dominate. If we cut off all solar production, China will dominate, and our children and grandchildren and even many of us will be at China's whim. China will have a grip on our energy policy. It will be outrageous. Outrageous. And so why did all this happen? How could they be so bad? The reason they're making these cuts is they want tax breaks for billionaires. It's outrageous. Outrageous. And a small group in the House, led by Chip Roy — these are not even mainstream energy producers. These are not the Exxons or the Chevrons, who have an all-of-the-above policy, but rather the hard-right people who made a fortune hitting oil or gas in the Permian Basin, the Anadarko Basin, etc. They hate clean energy like a religion. It's not even policy for them. They hate it like a religion because they know clean energy is the future and fossil fuels are the past. And soon — soon enough — fossil fuels, just by market mechanisms, will be depleted, replaced by clean energy.

I have spent so much time — all 24/7 — fighting this since it came out. We're working with unions. We're working with utilities. We're working with tech companies who know they need more energy for AI. We're working with everyone we can — the big producers of the jobs — and sending the message out to our Republican colleagues: Change this bill. It's horrible for consumers. It's horrible for jobs. It's horrible for American independence with China. We're gonna fight this. Fight this. Fight this. And believe we have a good chance of succeeding in at least modifying and maybe even killing the awful provisions in the House bill.

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