By Valerie Volcovici
BAKU (Reuters) – The U.S. utility industry wants the incoming Trump administration and Republican-led Congress to preserve clean energy and EV tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, Pedro Pizarro, the CEO of utility Edison International, said on Saturday.
The 2022 IRA contains hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy subsidies and is being billed as outgoing President Joe Biden’s signature bill to combat climate change. President-elect Donald Trump, a climate skeptic, has pledged to withdraw the proposal, something that would require support from Congress.
Pizarro, who until recently chaired the board of industrial trade group Edison Electric Institute, said the lobbying group’s members have emphasized to the Trump transition team and Republican members of Congress that preserving the IRA is good for both companies as well as consumers.
“One of our big priorities as an industry will be articulating the benefits of the IRA,” Pizarro told Reuters on the sidelines of the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan. “Most of these (IRA) benefits don’t actually accrue to our shareholders. They go directly to our buildings and to our customers,” he said.
Trump’s transition team is already working on plans to eliminate the $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric vehicle purchases as part of broader tax reform legislation, Reuters reports.
A group representing major electric vehicle and battery makers including Rivian, Tesla and Panasonic also urged Trump on Friday not to eliminate EV tax credits, citing the impact on key states that voted Republican.
Dan Brouillette, Trump’s former energy secretary, stepped down as CEO of EEI on October 28, just days before the US elections, and is working with the transition team on energy policy and cabinet appointments.
For EEI members, which include U.S. and international investor-owned utilities such as AES, Edison International, Duke Energy and Southern Company, maintaining IRA tax credits for energy storage, transmission, nuclear, hydrogen, electric vehicles and others is critical to continuous growth. Pizarro said.
“It really goes across the board.”
EEI members will spend the coming months reaching out to members on Capitol Hill, he said.
“We will be very active there just explaining the benefits of the IRA,” he said.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici, editing by Louise Heavens)
