A Democratic-backed 2022 climate bill is “gaining growing support among Republicans” and causing friction among Republican lawmakers, according to a Politico report on Sunday, August 25.
While the inflation-reduction bill “undeniably brings federal money, private investment and jobs to communities across the country that are overwhelmingly represented by Republicans,” Politico notes that not a single GOP lawmaker voted for the bill in 2022, “and conservatives keep claiming that its hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for electric vehicles, wind, solar and other technologies will drive up prices, distort markets and benefit China.”
According to the report, earlier this month, 18 Republicans in the House signed a letter urging House Speaker Mike Johnson to exclude the energy tax credits from efforts to repeal the Inflation Mitigation Act, with many of them seeing the incentives as both good for the planet and extremely beneficial for local economic development.”
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However, some far-right Republicans, such as Representative Chip Roy (Texas), have called some of the letter’s signatories hypocrites.
Noting that the “18 Republicans voted to eliminate the IRA climate subsidies last year,” Roy claimed via X: “Now (they) want to keep the so-called ‘green’ handouts to the Democrats’ corporate friends.”
As Politico reports, Nick Loris, vice president of public policy at Republican-aligned firm C3 Solutions, predicts that GOP members “will treat the tax credits like a buffet, with Republicans picking and choosing what they like and what they don’t.”
He stressed: “There will certainly be some division, but it will not be black and white.”
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Politico adds that the potential showdown within the party is “part of a deepening debate within the Republican Party over how to respond to climate change, which is an increasingly high priority for many young voters. And while more GOP lawmakers say they want to take action on the issue, many conservatives — including Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump — still don’t accept that global warming is man-made and that fossil fuels have an impact.”
You can find Politico’s full report here.
