Energy storage, solar groups lobby Trump administration

Energy storage and solar industry lobbyists descended on Washington DC to plead the case for retaining manufacturing tax credits granted their industries under the previous administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

US trade body the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) said the more-than 2,000 companies represented in scores of meetings with members of Congress and with Republican and Democrat staffers, on Feb. 5, represented hundreds of billions of dollars worth of private investment.

The scale of the task facing the lobbyists was highlighted when pv magazine USA reported, within 24 hours of the Washington delegation, that federal agencies have temporarily paused work on solar projects in response to an order to that effect issued by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum on Jan. 20, 12 days before he was sworn in.

Online clean energy publication Heatmap quoted a memo from DC-based think tank the American Clean Power Association claiming federal bodies the US Army Corp. of Engineers and the US Fish and Wildlife Service were refusing to offer feedback on solar power sites on private land, halting approvals processes.

Letters to Congress

As part of the clean energy lobbying effort, two letters – written by the SEIA and by other clean energy-related business groups – were sent to Congress laying out the facts behind the claim tax credits have been an effective economic driver.

The SEIA said solar supports more than 280,000 jobs and highlighted how the IRA’s provisions have seen the United States rise from the world’s seventh largest global solar module manufacturer to the third biggest. The trade body also pointed to the importance of increasing US energy production to feed data centers, manufacturing, artificial intelligence and more.

“Solar and storage help the American economy to grow, create jobs, and make America energy dominant,” stated the letter. “We urge you to keep in place the solar and storage, energy and manufacturing credits in any tax package that may move forward in the 119th Congress.”

Acknowledging President Trump’s aim of reducing energy costs and strengthening the economy, a separate letter to Congress, from 14,150 companies with 75,623 employees, cited rising electricity demand, the reshoring of solar manufacturing, and the need to compete with China as reasons the US legislature should “uphold federal clean energy and vehicle tax policies” and “oppose all efforts to weaken or repeal them.”

The prize at stake, the letter said, could be $66 billion of new clean energy investment and $50 billion worth of exports.

“Business leaders have acknowledged that repeal [of clean energy tax credits] will cause many to eliminate staff or to move their business abroad altogether,” stated the second letter to Congress. “It would also disrupt burgeoning US energy supply chains. Tax policies driving manufacturing and sales in the [US] Midwest and Southeast, for example, are also driving contracts for mining in Alaska and shipbuilding in Louisiana. This reshoring of key US energy supply chains is a win for the US economy and our energy security.”

SEIA president and CEO, Abigail Ross Hopper, said robust US solar and energy storage industries are necessary to meeting President Trump’s energy vision. “Solar can be built faster and cheaper than almost any technology,” she said. “With support from federal clean energy policies, American solar manufacturers can now produce enough modules to meet all demand for solar in the United States. It’s critical that our elected leaders understand the impact of these policies and the jobs and investments they bring to their constituents.”

From pv magazine USA.