The U.S. Senate met through the weekend and overnight June 30 to work on Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill, passing it 51-50 with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaking vote around noon July 1.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes most of the Trump administration’s legislative priorities, such as earlier phaseouts of clean energy tax credits. The Senate took out some of the most heavily criticized aspects, including a tax on the production of solar and wind power that was introduced over the weekend. (See Renewables Supporters Decry Late Change to Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’.)
President Donald Trump welcomed the Senate vote in a post on Truth Social, saying it will lower taxes, raise wages, secure the country’s borders and lead to a stronger military.
But American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet said in a statement that “the Senate reconciliation package is a step backward for American energy policy. The intentional effort to undermine the fastest-growing sources of electric power will lead to increased energy bills, decreased grid reliability and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
Grumet noted, however, that it could have been worse. The 12-month phaseout of the tax incentives is aggressive, but the final bill did not include the production tax.
“We appreciate the members of Congress who worked to get this legislation to a better place,” Grumet said. “Their efforts reinforce the basic principle that Congress should not bet against progress in any part of our economy.”
The House of Representatives is expected to quickly take up the Senate version of the bill, having already passed another version with different language on energy tax credits. The House Rules Committee met hours after the Senate passed the bill, clearing the way for it to reach the floor and possibly meet Trump’s personal deadline of getting the bill fully passed by July 4.
ClearPath Action, a conservative group that supports addressing climate change, argued that the bill keeps in place enough tools for industry to move forward on the next generation of clean energy technologies.
“The private sector needs all tools available, including tax credits and faster permitting, to meet the goals of increasing reliable electricity and lowering costs in an era of rising demand,” ClearPath CEO Jeremy Harrell said in a statement. “The reconciliation process started with calls from some to fully repeal all energy tax incentives, which would have devastated the ability to build new clean energy. Senate Republicans and House allies rejected that approach and preserved some financial tools to accelerate American innovation and invest in American manufacturing. We encourage House Republicans to swiftly pass this bill with the key energy provisions included.”
The Senate bill keeps incentives for advanced nuclear, geothermal, hydropower and storage through 2032, while wind and solar credits would be phased out in 2027. It preserves the transferability provisions for the life of each energy credit and retains the 45X advanced manufacturing incentive to support domestic production of critical minerals and certain energy components. It also provides new financing authority for the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office to support nuclear, geothermal and energy supply chains.
The Natural Resources Defense Council said the bill cuts tax credits for the fastest-growing source of new generation and is expected to lead to higher power bills around the country.
“With spiking power demand and rising bills, we need more clean, affordable American energy, but Senate Republicans just voted to kill jobs and deliver the largest utility bill increase in U.S. history,” NRDC CEO Manish Bapna said in a statement. “This measure props up the dirty and expensive technologies of the past while strangling the clean energy investments that are creating millions of jobs across the country. At a time when we need new energy more than ever, Republicans are punishing the plentiful wind and solar power that can be quickly added to the grid.”
