Summer 2025 Lobby Training: Current Congress Action and Potential Asks

Presentation Slides: cclusa.org/june-30-training��June 30, 2025

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About the Speakers

Jennifer Tyler

Vice President of

Government Affairs

for Citizens’ Climate Lobby

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Dana Nuccitelli

Research Manager for Citizens’ Climate Lobby

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Three Learning Goals

Understand what’s happening in Congress right now with the budget bill

Review the other potential asks for our July lobby day

Take action to contact your MOCs and ask them to vote no on the bill

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Asks Are In Flux

• Our asks will depend on the status of the ongoing reconciliation process and the discussions that emerge afterwards
• July 10th CCU will cover lobby day asks and we will have another additional training session for Q&A before the lobby day

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What’s happening in Congress right now?

What's happening in Congress ?

• Incredibly narrow Republican majorities in House and Senate
• Democratic Members are mostly in defensive mode
• Reconciliation is top focus
• Appropriations battles
• Very fast paced and highly partisan times but some avenues of bipartisan legislating remain

Image credit: Pew Research

Clean Energy Tax Credits - Reconciliation Priority

What is reconciliation?�Reconciliation is a fast-track budget process that allows certain legislation—primarily related to taxes, spending, and the debt limit—to pass the Senate with a simple majority (51 votes) and avoid the 60-vote filibuster.�

Why is it partisan?�Because it only requires a simple majority in the Senate, reconciliation is often used by the majority party to pass major policy priorities without bipartisan support—making it inherently more partisan than regular legislative processes.�

What’s happening with clean energy in this bill?

The bill includes changes to clean energy tax credits, weakening the credits and using the savings from these credits to offset other spending. In the latest version there is now a new tax on solar and wind, making things even worse for clean energy deployment.

Clean Energy Tax Credits - House Bill

• Takeaway: House bill included near immediate repeal of almost all clean energy credits
• House-passed reconciliation bill included:
• Clean electricity tax credits effectively eliminated immediately (includes solar, wind, hydrogen, geothermal)
• Nuclear tax credits received carve outs with longer runway
• EV tax credits eliminated at the end of the year, except for companies that sold very few EVs that would be eligible through 2026
• Home electrification, efficiency, rooftop solar, and battery storage credits expire at end of the year
• Strict Foreign Entity of Concern language that would prohibit any project with any component from China from qualifying for a credit

Senate Finance Bill Text

• Takeaway: Senate Finance Committee text made some positive improvements but it still was problematic from a climate and clean energy perspective
• Senate Finance Committee text included:
• Swift phaseout of solar and wind credits (down to 60% in 2026, 20% in 2027, and 0% starting in 2028)
• Slower phaseout of all other clean electricity tax credits (100% if construction commences before 2033, 75% in 2034, 50% in 2035, 0% starting in 2036)
• EV tax credits terminated within 3 months for used EVs, 6 months for new and commercial
• Home efficiency and rooftop solar credits terminated within 6 months
• Changes to Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) language; more improvements needed

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Final Senate Text (Pending Amendments)

• Takeaway: Last minute changes to the Senate bill could cripple U.S. solar and wind and slow down our clean energy transition
• Revised text included a new tax on future solar and wind projects and made several other harmful changes to the clean energy tax credits
• New 10–20% tax on solar and wind projects starting in 2028 unless they follow complicated and potentially unworkable requirements to disentangle their supply chains from China
• Solar and wind projects eligibility changed from “under construction” to “placed in service before 2028”
• All EV tax credits terminate on 9/30/25
• More specificity to FEOC requirements; they still introduce a lot of project uncertainty
• Slight improvement for hydrogen - received an extension to 1/1/28

How Bad is it for Clean Energy?

• Repealing the current 30–50% tax credit for clean electricity would roughly halve the amount of new clean energy we build over the next 5–10 years
• Adding a new solar & wind tax on top of that would make the situation even worse

The New Proposed Energy Tax

• New tax on solar & wind if too much of the value of their components comes from China
• Would add another ~10–20% tax on top of the 30–50% repealed credits
• Solar & wind already face permitting delays and tariffs too

The Worst Time to Tax Energy

Went from a ‘de facto’ to an actual energy tax when:

• Demand is rising fast
• Gas turbine backlog
• Nuclear, Geo too slow
• Cost of living is high
• We’re in an AI race
• More extreme weather
• Energy scarcity is bad!

What to Expect Next

• Takeaway: The Senate is likely voting on final passage later tonight or first thing tomorrow - call your Senator tonight!
• There have been a number of amendments considered during “vote-a-rama” related to the clean energy tax credits
• Sens Ernst, Grassley, and Murkowski introduced an amendment to revert many clean energy provisions back to the Senate Finance version (i.e. no new energy tax)
• Sen Hickenlooper introduced an amendment extend residential solar tax credits through the end of 2026
• Sen Curtis introduced an amendment to make the new energy tax more flexible
• There are still many provisions up that are not finalized and may see changes in addition to the clean energy tax credits, like SNAP and Medicaid. Any changes are being negotiated within the Senate Republican conference but also now the House conference

What We Will Do Next

• Takeaway: First, we will keep calling the Senate leading up to a floor vote.
• If the legislation passes the Senate, we will turn towards the House and urge them to reject all clean energy tax credit cuts as well as any additional tax on solar and wind
• Anything that passes the Senate will then have to be voted on by the House
• The dynamics in the House are as complex as the Senate
• It’s critical everyone with a Republican House Member of Congress, call their office to urge a no vote - some of the least climate-friendly Republicans maybe the most likely no votes

What’s Our Message to MOCs?

• Topline Message to Republicans: I urge you to vote no on the reconciliation bill and remove the harmful excise tax on new solar and wind projects.
• Focus on the impact of rising energy costs to you - their constituent
• The bill will kill hundreds of thousands of jobs in construction and manufacturing
• The bill will weaken America’s position on the global stage, helping China win the clean energy economy and AI races

*Do not mention climate. It is not a salient message in this moment.*

• Topline Message to Democrats: Thank you for standing against efforts to repeal America's clean energy tax credits. Your leadership is essential. I urge you to vote no on the Senate reconciliation bill that would gut these credits and advocate to remove the harmful new tax on wind and solar projects.

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Longer Outlook on Clean Energy Tax Credits

• Takeaway: Should the bill pass both chambers and get signed into law, we will dig in and find the best way we can to address these harmful provisions
• We would approach this new law focused on two factors:
• Which provisions are most damaging from a climate perspective
• Which provisions benefit from grassroots pushback

Other Likely Lobbying Asks

• Permitting reform will still be critical to reduce roadblocks to building clean energy projects, regardless of what happens with the budget
• Even more important if clean energy tax credits are repealed
• Fix Our Forests Act still needs our help to move forward and lessen wildfire risks
• We may ask Congress to appropriate sufficient money for key agencies and programs
• Tune in on July 10th to find out more!

What You Can Be Doing

• Reach out to your MOC and have your chapter members, family, and friends reach out to their MOC on clean energy tax credits
• Prepare for your meeting using the Meeting Plan and Outline
• Watch past trainings on Fix Our Forests Act and Permitting Reform

Why Our Advocacy Matters In This Moment

• Policymakers are watching how constituents respond
• Our presence builds long-term power
• This would be a setback, but not the end of our efforts

One last thing! Let us know how it goes

• After your meeting send a email to the Liaison email: liaison.coordinator@citizensclimate.org
• Include the name of your Senator or Rep. and a number based on your meeting:
• 1 → Clearly supports EPRA
• 2 → Seems likely to support
• 3 → Undecided
• 4 → Likely opposes /concerns
• 5 → Opposes

Time For Questions

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Questions? Ask on CCL Community’s Forums: https://community.citizensclimate.org/forums

www.citizensclimatelobby.org