West Virginia has long been an energy state.
But far-reaching legislation its U.S. House of Representatives members approved Thursday is widely projected to leave America short on energy just as it needs more of it than ever to power the nationÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s future.
Reps. Carol Miller and Riley Moore, both R-W.Va., voted in a slim House Republican majority to concur with changes the Senate made Tuesday to a budget reconciliation bill modeling experts expect to pull the plug on a job-creating energy boom, raise electricity prices and deprive the nation of enough new capacity to power hundreds of millions of homes.
The budget reconciliation legislation would repeal tax credits for green energy and vehicles that have driven a rise in energy manufacturing, disinvestments forecast to force households and businesses to buy electricity and gas at higher prices.
U.S. power generation capacity will collapse 340 gigawatts by 2035 ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” enough to power some 255 million homes ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” as a result of the bill, according to an analysis of the SenateÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s version of the bill approved Tuesday by Energy Innovation LLC, a San Francisco-based climate policy firm.
The bill would cause household energy bills to rise $170 by 2035, electricity rates paid by consumers to grow from 9% to 18% by 2035, America to lose $980 billion in total gross domestic product and workers to suffer 760,000 lost jobs by 2030, . Gross domestic product, or GDP, is a measure of the monetary value of goods and services produced in a certain time period.
Energy Innovation previously projected that changes in the similar House-passed version of the bill would result in:
- The loss of 2,000 jobs by 2030 and nearly 3,300 jobs in West Virginia by 2035, due to a drop in new domestic energy and manufacturing investments
- Increase household energy spending in West Virginia by an average of nearly $160 per year in 2030 and more than $410 per year in 2035 due to increased capital, fuel and operating expenses, with households paying $1.5 billion in increased energy bills through 2035
Another analysis released Tuesday projects the reconciliation bill would trigger steep GDP and job loss over the next 10 years, with outcomes including:
- Over 1.68 million jobs lost
- $197 billion in wages lost
- An 8% hike in annual emissions by 2035
- Over 260 gigawatts of utility-scale solar, land-based wind and battery storage capacity lost
- An electricity sector emissions increase of 61.7%
The the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a climate policy and analytical company, and Greenline Insights, a modeling and policy design firm, pointed to bill provisions curtailing solar and wind production and investment tax credits and disqualifying projects for those and other technologies from getting full credits if they donÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t meet minimum thresholds for avoiding use of manufacturing components from prohibited foreign entities.
China would be a prohibited foreign entity, a designation effectively blocking the tax credit for a wide array of projects since China is the chief importer of many material components to the U.S., which nonetheless needs to grow its renewable energy production to localize its supply chain away from China.
The legislation favors fossil fuels over renewables, creating a new advanced manufacturing tax credit for metallurgical coal cheered by West Virginia Coal Association president Chris Hamilton.
It also postpones for 10 years a fee on methane leaks from gas and oil operations, courtesy of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chaired by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who supported the bill along with Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œWest Virginia is fortunate to have among the most dedicated congressional leaders in the nation ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” leaders who understand our stateÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s role as an energy powerhouse and fight every day to defend it,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Charlie Burd, president of the , said in a statement upon the billÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s passage.
Miller claims bill will ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥˜ensure America energy dominanceÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™
In a brief House floor address, Miller praised the bill, predicting it would ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œensure America energy dominance.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œThis legislation will make the life of the average American better,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Miller said, ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œand I support getting it to President TrumpÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s desk.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
In a statement Thursday afternoon, Moore lauded the bill for ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œembrac[ing] fossil fuels to power our economy, reindustrialize the heartland, and beat China in the AI arms race.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
But the U.S. has fallen well behind China in new power generation buildout, a gap that energy experts anticipate the bill will only exacerbate for the U.S.
Coupled with sweeping cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the investment and production incentive rollbacks have fueled criticism the legislation will make life costlier and less healthy for most Americans.
But Moore and Miller have defended the budget reconciliation framework. Moore hailed the HouseÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s passage of its version of the bill in May as a blow to the ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œGreen New Scam.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
Unions, community and renewable industry groups have struck a different tone, sounding alarms about the legislation throughout its advancement toward passage.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œTodayÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s vote represents a missed opportunity to sustain momentum towards strengthening American energy security, lowering energy costs for families and businesses, and unlocking hundreds of thousands of new, good-paying jobs across the country,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Ray Long, president and CEO of the , said in a statement upon the billÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s passage.
The billÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s consequences for renewable energy
Gas turbine supply constraints, demand growth driven by power-hungry data centers and increasingly extreme weather patterns threaten power grid capacity and reliability as the budget reconciliation bill aims to crush renewable energy support. In December 2024, the Department of Energy under then-President Joe Biden projected data center power demand would double or triple by 2028.
The bill has been expected to exacerbate extreme weather by curtailing support for renewable energy deployment and other environmentally conscious moves designed to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
Coal has proven to be increasingly uneconomic, gas-fired turbine wait times have slowed gas power generation buildout, and advanced nuclear and carbon capture technologies arenÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t ready for commercial scale, leaving renewables as a key energy choice to meet rising power demand.
The reconciliation bill would end clean electricity and investment tax credits for solar and wind placed into service after 2027, a much tighter window than a previous Senate Finance Committee proposal that would have linked eligibility to when a project starts construction. That deadline is expected to be virtually impossible for most projects due to global supply barriers and permitting delays, with subsequent failures to meet the billÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s deadline for coming online resulting in less financing and more projects folding.
The bill would move up the end date for electric vehicle tax credits to Sept. 30 this year, compared with six months after enactment in the earlier Senate Finance Committee text.
It would require a facility to begin construction by the end of 2027 instead of the end of 2032 to be eligible for a hydrogen production tax credit viewed as key for the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub.
The hub, known as ARCH2, is a proposed hydrogen production, storage and delivery network with sites planned in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania that has been supported by West VirginiaÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s congressional delegation since it was selected by the Department of Energy for up to $925 million in funding in 2023 through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act approved by Congress in 2022 under then-President Joe Biden.
The bill fast-tracks the phaseout of advanced energy manufacturing production and investment tax credits viewed as key for battery storage innovation firms like Form Energy, which plans to commercialize a battery that can economically store electricity for 100 hours at its first commercial-scale battery-making facility in Weirton.
Form Energy cofounder and CEO Mateo Jaramillo told HD ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ in May the company opposed rollbacks proposed in the budget reconciliation package, calling energy tax credits ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œessential to rebuilding American manufacturing, enhancing our energy reliability and security, and ensuring the United States remains competitive in the global economy.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
Heather OÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™Neill, president and CEO of , a national industry association representing advanced energy and transportation options, said in a statement Tuesday the bill would ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œhit Americans hard,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ reducing demand for U.S.-made technologies and straining new domestic energy production at a time of growing demand and prices.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œThe advanced energy industry will endure,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ OÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™Neill said, ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œbut the downstream effects of these rollbacks and punitive policies will be felt by American families and businesses for years to come.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
