The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s section of the Republicans’ party-line megabill includes billions of dollars in clawbacks from a host of Inflation Reduction Act programs.
The legislation — up for markup Tuesday — would affect the Department of Energy’s Loans Program Office, EPA’s Greenhouse Reduction Fund and many other climate law initiatives, according to text released Sunday night.
Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said the climate law repeals would add up to $6.5 billion in savings. He said the unobligated balances represented “the most reckless parts of the engorged climate spending in the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act.”
“The 2024 election sent a clear signal that Americans are tired of an extreme left-wing agenda that favors wokeness over sensible policy and spurs price increases,” Guthrie said in a Sunday Wall Street Journal op-ed.
Guthrie said the administration “has already reversed President Biden and Democrats’ electric-vehicle mandates and natural-gas export ban; now it’s Congress’s turn.”
Guthrie told committee Republicans on a call Sunday that the overall legislation — including changes to Medicaid — would create more than $900 billion in savings, according to POLITICO.
A committee spokesperson said “the bill specifically rescinds funding leftover from nine of the Biden Administration’s IRA renewable energy and electrification subsidy programs at the Department of Energy — saving taxpayers money and allowing for deficit reduction.”
Department of Energy
The legislation would scrap “the unobligated balance” of IRA funding for the Loans Program Office and money dedicated to transmission projects.
The LPO received over $35 billion from the climate law, while DOE’s Grid Deployment Office got around $3 billion as part from the IRA’s “Transmission Facility Financing” section.
Republicans will also try to rescind IRA funds boosting a number of other DOE programs, including initiatives on advanced vehicle manufacturing, energy infrastructure reinvestment financing, tribal energy loan guarantees and state-based efficiency grants. Those programs, in total, received around $8.3 billion from the climate law.
The committee, however, did not make clear just how much leftover funding is available to repeal after the Biden administration pushed to get as much as possible out the door.
Outside of IRA programs, the legislation would accelerate permitting for infrastructure projects through new fees, something similar to the Natural Resources Committee text and what Democrats have called a pay-to-play scheme.
One Energy and Commerce provision, for example, would allow DOE to automatically deem a potential liquefied natural gas export facility to be in the “public interest” — normally a key regulatory hurdle — if the applicant pays a one-time fee of $1 million.
Another provision would allow other natural gas infrastructure developers to receive an “expedited permitting process” from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under the Natural Gas Act if the applicants pays $10 million or 1 percent of the project’s projected cost.
The proposal eyes permitting being completed within a year and would exempt projects from certain litigation. A similar timeline and fee would apply to carbon dioxide, oil and hydrogen pipeline permitting.
The legislation would also rescind congressionally appropriated funding outside of the IRA for key DOE programs, including around $401 million from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and around $260 million from DOE’s State and Community Energy Programs.
It would grant $2 billion for the department to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a longtime objective of Republicans to shore up the nation’s energy security.
EPA
The bill text confirmed a longtime promise from Energy and Commerce leaders that they would target unobligated balances from the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a $27 billion IRA program designed to support clean energy projects particularly in low-income and disadvantaged communities.
Outside of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the plan would repeal a variety of IRA programs designed to reduce air pollution at schools and ports, reduce emissions from diesel engines and construction materials, and promote carbon monitoring initiatives.
And, as expected, the legislation takes aim at the Inflation Reduction Act’s methane fee. That program is designed to reduce methane leaks from natural gas infrastructure. Congress, through the Congressional Review Act, already repealed EPA regulations implementing the fee.
The legislation would also roll back two regulations on emissions from passenger vehicles. Gone would be the latest corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and EPA’s newest multipollutant emissions standards for model years 2027 and later, requiring significant reductions in greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions from light-duty and medium-duty vehicles.
Republicans went further in their targeting of Biden-era vehicle policies with a proposed repeal of $600 million in grants and rebates to states, municipalities tribes and nonprofits to expand the use of zero-emission vehicles.
Ways and Means, Agriculture
The House Ways and Means Committee and the Agriculture Committee are also looking to vote on their sections of the budget reconciliation package Tuesday.
The Ways and Means Committee released placeholder text Friday night without any details on how the panel plans to handle renewable energy and other incentives. More details could emerge as soon as Monday.
The text does include a permanent extension of individual income tax rates that are set to expire in the coming months. The language also includes temporary raises for the standard deduction and the child tax credit.
While Energy and Commerce is looking for savings through changes to Medicaid, House Republicans are looking to the Agriculture Committee to reduce spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. And that could upset the delicate bipartisan balance needed to approve a new farm bill.
House Agriculture Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) told reporters last month that his panel’s cuts would probably be lower than once expected and that he wants the budget reconciliation bill to generate — not hinder — momentum toward a new farm bill.
“This markup begins the process of strengthening SNAP by restoring program integrity, helping Americans move from government dependence to opportunity through work and education, and holding states accountable,” said Thompson said in a statement Friday.
“Additionally, Committee Republicans will ensure farmers, ranchers, and rural America have the policies they need to weather the impending economic crisis in farm country,” he said.
Thompson also told reporters last month he was looking to protect conservation funding. “I think conservation is in a really good place going forward,” Thompson said.
Schedule: The House Energy and Commerce markup begins Tuesday, May 13, at 2 p.m. in 2123 Rayburn and via webcast.
Schedule: The House Ways and Means markup begins Tuesday, May 13, at 2 p.m. in 1100 Longworth and via webcast.
Schedule: The House Agriculture markup begins Tuesday, May 13, at 7:30 p.m. in 1300 Longworth and via webcast.
Reporters Ben Leonard and Marc Heller contributed.
This story also appears in Climatewire and Energywire.
