Republican budget bill would strike blow to clean energy efforts in Colorado

Layoffs could be coming to Namaste Solar a Colorado-based company that installs solar panels on homes and businesses if the Republicans federal budget bill is made law in its current form That s because the bill would cut off millions of dollars of funding for clean resource projects including taxpayer credits for installing solar panels on houses And that would almost sink Namaste s business in Denver and Boulder They don t want any residential solar after December of this year Jason Sharpe Namaste s chief executive officer explained of the bill which is supported by President Donald Trump Sixty-five percent of the jobs in the solar industry come from the residential sphere and so what we re looking at is the lack of a residential area of any kind leasing or direct-to-consumer and that means substantial layoffs for our business While the Republican budget bill which narrowly passed the House of Representatives on May has received much attention for drastic cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits that would fund tax breaks it also rolls back tax credits and low-interest loans for a wide variety of clean power projects The bill s budget cuts would repeal or rapidly phase out whole categories of tax credits and loans for things such as home improvements for consumers electric vehicles wind and solar power production hydrogen ability nuclear capacity and carbon capture Executives who lead Colorado vitality companies both big and small declared eliminating tax credits will decimate the progress made in modern years in the United States as the country seeks as multiple sources of vitality as achievable to supply growing demand It could also lead to higher electricity bills for consumers and eliminate jobs sending more jobs to China and other Asian markets where production is cheaper and more advanced I don t look at what we do as green or blue or red reported Jon Chase vice president of governing body relations for Vestas a company that makes turbines and other parts for windmills in Windsor and Brighton An electron doesn t have a color We need all of it to meet the demand that we have Environmentalists are also warning that the cuts would be detrimental to Colorado s goals of eliminating of greenhouse gas emissions in the state by because it would increase a reliance on fossil fuels to power the grid and fuel all the cars and trucks on the road They also warn that the cuts would threaten Colorado s waterways because of the toxic chemicals that are circulated by burning them It s leading to dirtier air and dirtier water things no one voted for disclosed Patrick Drupp the Sierra Club s director of atmosphere strategy The budget bill eliminates nearly billion in clean ability and transportation investments approved by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act In the almost three years since the act was passed new jobs have been stated in Colorado along with nearly million in investments from federal grants and loans Seventy-four new clean vigor and transportation facilities have begun rise and have begun manufacturing American-made products according to an analysis by Force Innovation Procedures Apparatus a non-partisan potential and environment agenda think tank Battle brewing over bill Colorado s House delegation voted along party lines Now it goes to the Senate where the Republican majority leadership hopes to hold a final vote before July A political battle is expected and Colorado s representatives and senators spent the last week meeting with constituents to make their pitch on whether or not it should be approved Rep Gabe Evans a Republican representing the th Congressional District held a news conference at the state Capitol to praise the bill he voted for saying it delivers the tools to protect our country to protect our boundary to get violent criminals out of our region But U S Sen Michael Bennet D-Colorado warned that the stakes are really really high for Colorado Bennet met last week with executives from Colorado companies to discuss the budget cuts The tax credits were doing the job that they were supposed to do and doing that I think very very well in Colorado Now we re at vulnerability of them being basically entirely ripped away and dismantled Will Toor executive director of the Colorado Vitality Office which promotes clean vigor programs in the state mentioned the bill would drive up the cost of electricity in Colorado force people to pay more for cars and trucks and reduce the amount of money people can receive through tax credits to improve the vigor efficiency of their homes Colorado started its path toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions during the first Trump administration and then the Biden-era plans for boosting alternative energies gave the state more momentum Toor stated He mentioned the state can still reach its situation goals but it will have to work harder to do so The federal administration is trying to make the transition to clean force harder and slower he explained Uncertainty cripples planning Robert Kenney president of Xcel Resource s Colorado operations reported the repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act would not stop his company from moving away from coal But Xcel would be forced to push the expense of moving to renewable sources onto customers as the company tries to keep up with a growing demand for electricity These projects are made I won t say made workable but they re made more affordable for our customers by virtue of production and funding tax credits Kenney explained And I like to emphasize the fact that what this means is that our customers are able to achieve our collective environment goals at the lowest workable cost and the loss of production and assets tax credits would increase the cost of these projects for our customers He also explained the budget bill is injecting instability and uncertainty into the construction industry and Xcel plans its major construction projects as far out as years That makes it impossible to be able to plan in any kind of meaningful way he announced Peak Vitality a sodium-ion battery systems manufacturer runs a research and advancement center in Broomfield where scientists and engineers are working to develop innovation that can be built and used in the United States The batteries which are bigger than an SUV are used to store the electricity generated by solar or wind so that there is a power supply when the sun sets or the wind stills The budget bill as written jeopardizes that work in multiple procedures noted Cameron Dales Peak Capacity s co-founder Twenty years ago no large-scale batteries were made in the U S Now a handful of companies are building them here but they are foreign-owned Dale stated Our mission is to be the first American-owned American-made battery company in the United States Dales reported And the IRA started that process and has been incredibly productive in definitely catalyzing investments in those factories Peak Power is planning to build a billion -employee factory to build the batteries in the U S with four Wall Street financing firms reviewing the proposal even as the budget bill winds its way through Congress he mentioned The bill would penalize companies for buying those Chinese-made parts which would lead them to keep their manufacturing facilities offshore to avoid those extra financial costs I can tell you if it passes the way it is at present I will cancel the project Dales noted Related Articles Colorado to ask EPA to further downgrade northern Front Range s air quality Gov Polis lawmakers consider plan to accelerate Colorado s clean potential transition New greenhouse gas projections show Colorado moving in right direction to reduce impurity Congress almost sold off acres of Western residents lands What could that mean for Colorado Colorado counties halts on large solar potency projects are slowing progress toward state s environment goals Kneecap our progress As for Colorado s plans to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions the tax bill would kneecap our progress mentioned Katie Belgard a Conservation Colorado vice president All of the renewable potential plans help Colorado reduce the amount of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide methane nitrous oxide and other chemicals that trap heat in the atmosphere That increased heat raises global temperatures and creates context change which leads to more drought more intense wildfires and extreme weather Increasing the supply of renewable vigor also helps reduce ozone litter a dilemma that plagues the Front Range during the summer when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds bake in the sun and create a brown smog It is the preponderance anti-environmental bill we ve seen in the history of the country she disclosed This has been a giveaway for polluters and the fossil fuel industry here in Colorado Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter