The Future of Clean Energy is at Risk

Lindsay Kuczera | April 9, 2025

Wind turbines on the Bishop Hill wind farm operate among the corn and soybean fields near Bishop Hill, Ill. Credit: USDA Photo by Preston Keres

Across the United States, federal funding for clean energy and climate projects has been paused, frozen, or cancelled entirely. This comes at a time when the country’s energy grid is already strained, household energy prices are rising, and extreme heat worsened by climate change is increasing. What the country needs, now more than ever, is leaders who are still committed to prioritizing clean air and water, and who recognize that the health of our communities and our wildlife are inextricably connected. This includes investing in clean, alternative forms of energy that provide reliability and pollution reduction, and that build our economy through new jobs and budding industries.

Inflation Reduction Act Had Major Impact

In 2022, former President Biden signed into law the most transformative investments in fighting climate change, environmental justice, and resource conservation ever—called the Inflation Reduction Act. This legislation supported innovation by providing tax credits to businesses to provide clean, renewable energy, manufacture green technologies such as solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles, and capture and sequester carbon dioxide from the air and from industrial facilities.

It also reinvested in America’s manufacturing businesses, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country—many in rural communities and communities impacted by the closing of coal plants and other facilities.

This legislation has had a huge impact in communities across the country. It provided funding for farmers to install solar panels on their farms, for schools to replace their broken and aging diesel buses with clean electrics, for limiting methane emissions from leaky oil and gas wells, for small businesses to open and expand their operations creating solar panels, batteries, manufacturing chips, and so much more.

An old, orphaned oil well pump in a farm field. Credit: JJ Gouin/Getty Images

Illegally Frozen Funds Present Challenges to Progress

However, these funds—which are allocated by Congress and can only be withdrawn by an act of Congress—are being illegally frozen, eliminated, and withdrawn by the new Trump administration. These actions are having profound impacts.

For example, in Louisiana, $783 million awarded to accelerate decarbonization projects in energy-intensive industries has been frozen. This undermines U.S. manufacturing competitiveness in the emerging global clean energy economy that would help produce clean steel and cement used for our nation’s roads, bridges, and power grid. Meanwhile, in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, funding for the Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub is also frozen. This hub would have created over 14,400 construction jobs and over 6,400 permanent jobs.

And in many states across the nation, farmers who were in the midst of installing solar panels on their farms through the Rural Energy for America grant program are left to foot the bill. Without these programs established by the Inflation Reduction Act that incentivize the expansion of clean energy both at a local level and utility scale, households will see increasing energy costs. Economists estimate cuts to the clean energy tax credits would mean households spending an extra $184 a year in just five years—with residents in Texas, Iowa, Kansas, and other states paying over $400 more a year.

The clean energy tax credits in the landmark Inflation Reduction Act were on track to revitalize America’s manufacturing business, speed the transition to non-emitting energy, clean up industrial pollution, and breathe life back into communities left behind by the declining coal industry. However, these funds—along with other vital services Americans rely on—are at risk of being permanently eliminated by Congress. We cannot allow Congress to set America back even further in the fight against runaway climate change. Use your voice to tell your member of Congress to defend and preserve these clean energy tax credits during their budget negotiations.