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In Trump's Megabill, a Clean Energy Phase Out and a Big, Beautiful Tax Break for Met Coal Exporters
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02072025/big-beautiful-bill-met-coal-tax-break/A provision slipped into President Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act would provide millions of dollars in tax credits to U.S. companies that produce metallurgical coal—coal largely exported overseas for use in foreign steelmaking.
The language was added to the 887-page tax and spending-cut bill before its narrow passage by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, though it’s unclear which senator or senators pushed the addition of the pro-coal language.
After an all-night session and hours of wrangling, much of it due to a divide within the GOP over energy policy, the U.S. Senate passed the legislation by a vote of 51-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. The bill now moves to the House, which will need to agree to the Senate’s changes before the legislation lands on President Donald Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
. . .
Murkowski was one of at least five Republicans who were working to ease the phase-out of federal incentives for clean energy. They were able to jettison an excise tax that was slapped on wind and solar during weekend negotiations over the legislation, but the other improvements for clean energy they achieved were modest. The bill, as passed by the Senate, protects solar and wind projects from a phase-out of tax credits if they begin construction less than one year after the legislation’s enactment. But the legislation still requires that the projects be placed in service before 2027 to remain eligible for favorable tax treatment, which puts a cloud of uncertainty over clean energy projects, since completion dates sometimes are outside of developers’ control.
Fossil fuels fared better in the legislation, with provisions to mandate at least four oil and gas lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—an important issue to Murkowski—added by the end of the Senate’s marathon session.
The language was added to the 887-page tax and spending-cut bill before its narrow passage by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, though it’s unclear which senator or senators pushed the addition of the pro-coal language.
After an all-night session and hours of wrangling, much of it due to a divide within the GOP over energy policy, the U.S. Senate passed the legislation by a vote of 51-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. The bill now moves to the House, which will need to agree to the Senate’s changes before the legislation lands on President Donald Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
. . .
Murkowski was one of at least five Republicans who were working to ease the phase-out of federal incentives for clean energy. They were able to jettison an excise tax that was slapped on wind and solar during weekend negotiations over the legislation, but the other improvements for clean energy they achieved were modest. The bill, as passed by the Senate, protects solar and wind projects from a phase-out of tax credits if they begin construction less than one year after the legislation’s enactment. But the legislation still requires that the projects be placed in service before 2027 to remain eligible for favorable tax treatment, which puts a cloud of uncertainty over clean energy projects, since completion dates sometimes are outside of developers’ control.
Fossil fuels fared better in the legislation, with provisions to mandate at least four oil and gas lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—an important issue to Murkowski—added by the end of the Senate’s marathon session.