‘Big, beautiful bill’ passage dims outlook for Georgia’s clean energy sectors
Clean energy proponents warn Georgia could face job losses, higher electricity prices and contraction in its solar, battery and electric vehicle industries after President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy legislation passed Friday.
“This bill is a stunningly reckless blow to America’s economy and our environment,” said Bob Keefe, the executive director of E2, a nonpartisan advocacy group that promotes clean energy jobs and investment.
The massive legislation, dubbed the “one big, beautiful bill,” narrowly passed the House of Representatives, 218 to 214, Friday afternoon after more than a day of negotiations and a record-breaking speech. U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, R-Jackson, was part of the team pushing Republican House members to support the bill.
“If you ran on Trump’s coattails, then don’t stall his legislation. Help get it done,” he said in a social media post in the hours before the vote.
All nine GOP members of the House from Georgia voted for the bill, and all five Democratic Georgia House members opposed it.
The bill cleared the Senate earlier this week with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaking vote.
Now it heads to Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
The bill delivers on some of Trump’s campaign promises: extending corporate and individual tax breaks enacted during his first term, along with increasing border security and defense spending.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the bill “delivers on the commonsense agenda that nearly 80 million Americans voted for — the largest middle-class tax cut in history, permanent border security, massive military funding and restoring fiscal sanity.”
To pay for those priorities, it makes deep cuts to funding for clean energy projects and government aid programs, including Medicaid. But even with the reduced spending, it’s projected to add around $3.3 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, according to the independent Congressional Budget Office.
Georgia has been one of the top states for solar, electric vehicle and battery manufacturing investment since a raft of federal incentives were created during former President Joe Biden’s administration. Their goal was to wean the economy off polluting fossil fuels, create jobs, build domestic supply chains and combat Chinese dominance in clean energy and EV sectors.
Now, many of the tax credits Georgia companies had banked on will soon go away completely or be scaled back earlier than expected.
A $7,500 consumer tax credit for the purchase of certain EVs will now disappear at the end of September. New material sourcing restrictions for factories that manufacture solar panels, batteries and related components to claim credits are coming. And by the end of this year, a 30% federal tax break available to homeowners to install rooftop solar will sunset.
It’ll take time for the full impact of the changes to be felt, but some are warning they could be dire.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock said in a statement that, “Georgia Republicans just voted to put 42,000 good-paying Georgia jobs at risk,” citing an estimate of the potential job losses in the state’s clean energy sector.
“This is a sad reminder that Washington politicians are not working for ordinary Georgians,” Warnock added.
During a media briefing earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff called the bill “a direct attack on the industry that is driving Georgia’s economic development, job creation and wealth creation in our state right now.”