CEI urges Congress to end the Inflation Reduction Act’s subsidies at the heart of the Green New Deal.

Dear Members of Congress:

In 2022, President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats pushed through one of the most extreme pieces of legislation in recent memory: the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Not a single Republican in either the House or Senate supported this bill.

The IRA was a reconciliation bill that helped the political left advance its Green New Deal. Now, because Republicans have control of both chambers of Congress, they can now use the reconciliation process and other means to dismantle the “green” subsidies contained in the IRA.

The undersigned organizations strongly urge all legislators, regardless of party, to make it a priority to get rid of the IRA’s Green New Deal provisions. Many conservative policymakers have made undoing the Green New Deal a priority. This is impossible without undoing the IRA “green” subsidies, which are the heart of the Green New Deal.

The spotlight will be on Republicans and more specifically on whether they can come through for the American people by getting rid of these IRA subsidies. If the subsidies are not repealed in reconciliation, this will be a devastating result. It will be characterized as a major failure and an ominous sign for the 119th Congress, as well as a failure to advance President Donald Trump’s Unleashing American Energy agenda. Those characterizations would be fair.

This is a critical moment that will require Republicans and other legislators to overcome far left efforts to maintain the IRA and the Biden administration’s harmful anti-energy legacy. There have been recent reports of some Republicans wavering in their opposition to the IRA subsides. IRA boosters cynically predicted Republicans would change their tune on the IRA once money started flowing into their districts. It appears that may be happening. That is unacceptable and ignores the harm subsidies will cause to Americans, including those living in all congressional districts.

The IRA is filled with numerous subsidies that were designed to shift our country away from reliable electricity generation (coal and natural gas) to unreliable electricity sources (e.g. wind and solar). This comes at a time of concern about the reliability of the nation’s electricity grid, in large part because of misguided corporate welfare policies that undermine reliable baseload generation.

There are also IRA subsidies that work in conjunction with other policies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s de facto electric vehicle mandate, to kill off gas-powered vehicles – undermining the freedom of Americans to choose their cars.

These examples capture just some of the problems with the IRA “green” subsidies. In general, the subsidies will drive up prices, diminish grid reliability, compromise mobility, and disproportionately impact the poor. Not to mention, the subsidies are expected to cost over $1 trillion, and this may be a low-ball estimate.

There is another excuse for maintaining IRA subsidies that was predicted after the law’s passage. Some big businesses claim they made decisions relying on those subsidies. Any business that bet on the IRA subsidies continuing, especially given the wide opposition to the IRA, is a poorly led business. Congress needs to put the interests of the American people over the interests of wealthy special interests who are trying to keep their handouts flowing at the expense of taxpayers.

All IRA “green” subsidies should be in the sights of policymakers. They work together as a central plan to achieve a radical and harmful shift in how our country produces and uses electricity, among other things. Given that they work together to achieve this Green New Deal, they should be eliminated together to restore freedom and ensure our country can reliably and affordably meet its energy needs.

Our organizations believe that this is a pivotal moment for our country. Will we go down the path of the Green New Deal, as pushed by Biden and the far left, or will Republicans and common- sense legislators get our country back on course to meeting our energy needs now and in the future? This is what is at stake.

Therefore, our organizations again urge you to eliminate the IRA’s “green” subsidies. We are available to work with you to ensure that when Congress passes reconciliation legislation this year, these harmful subsidies are repealed. If there is such an outcome, then this would be a major victory for conservatives, and more importantly, for the nation.

Sincerely,

Daren Bakst
Director, Center for Energy and
Environment
Competitive Enterprise Institute

James L. Martin
Founder/Chairman
60 Plus Association

Paul Teller
Executive Vice President
Advancing American Freedom

John Droz
Founder and Physicist
Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions

Amy O. Cooke
President, Board Chairman
Always On Energy Research

Saulius “Saul” Anuzis
President
American Association of Senior Citizens

Phil Kerpen
President
American Commitment

Thomas Pyle
President
American Energy Alliance

Hon. Jason Isaac
CEO
American Energy Institute

Myron Ebell
Chairman
American Lands Council

Margaret Byfield
Executive Director
American Stewards of Liberty

Richard Manning
President
Americans for Limited Government

Faith Burns
Energy Policy Fellow
Americans for Prosperity

Rea S. Hederman Jr.
Vice President of Policy
The Buckeye Institute

David T. Stevenson
Director, Center for Energy & Environment
Caesar Rodney Institute

Ryan Ellis
President
Center for a Free Economy

Daniel J. Mitchell
President
Center for Freedom and Prosperity

Jeffrey Mazzella
President
Center for Individual Freedom

John Hinderaker
President
Center of the American Experiment

Craig Rucker
President
Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow
(CFACT)

E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D.
President
Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of
Creation

Kristen A. Ullman
President
Eagle Forum

Craig Richardson
President
Energy & Environment Legal Institute
(E&E Legal)

Malon Wilkus
President
The Foundation Supporting Climate
Science

George Landrith
President
Frontiers of Freedom

Mark Krebs
Principal
Gas Analytics & Advocacy Services LLC
(GAAS)

Larry Hart
President
Hartco Strategies

Cameron Sholty
Executive Director
Heartland Impact

James Taylor
President
The Heartland Institute

Ryan Walker
Executive Vice President
Heritage Action for America

Mario H. Lopez
President
Hispanic Leadership Fund

Gabriella Hoffman
Director, Center for Energy & Conservation
Independent Women’s Voice

Tom Harris, B. Eng., M. Eng. (Mech.)
Executive Director
International Climate Science Coalition
(ICSC)

Annette Olson
Chief Executive Officer
The John K. MacIver Institute for Public
Policy, Inc.

Jon Sanders
Director of the Center for Food, Power, and
Life
John Locke Foundation

Seton Motley
President
Less Government

Charles Moran
President
Log Cabin Republicans

Jason Hayes
Director of Energy and Environmental
Policy
Mackinac Center for Public Policy

Paul Craney
Executive Director
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance

Brandon Arnold
Executive Vice President
National Taxpayers Union

Daniel C. Turner
Founder and Executive Director
Power the Future

Tim Barton
President
ProFamily Legislative Network by
Wallbuilders

Donna Jackson
Director of Membership Development
Project 21 Black Leadership Network

Paul Gessing
President
Rio Grande Foundation

James E. Enstrom, PhD, MPH
President
Scientific Integrity Institute

David Williams
President
Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Jenny Beth Martin
Honorary Chairman
Tea Party Patriots Action

Greg Sindelar
Chief Executive Officer
Texas Public Policy Foundation

Derrick Max
President and CEO
Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy

Frank Lasee
President
Truth in Energy and Climate

Todd Myers
Vice President for Research
Washington Policy Center

Carol Platt Liebau
President
Yankee Institute

Benjamin Zycher
Senior Fellow
American Enterprise Institute (affiliation for
identification purposes only)