Climate Connections: Budget bill backwards, dangerous and dumb

Amy Cilimburg and Abby Huseth

On this late spring Friday, one of us is headed with her wide-eyed 7-year-old to explore quirky bugs at the Butterfly House, and the other will head out on her daily treks to check on the Great-horned Owl babies and luxuriate in our arrowleaf balsamroot-infused hillsides.

We couldn’t be more grateful for these quintessential Missoula experiences. They seem lifesaving today.

But first, we need to share why we are shocked and angry. (Yes, like others in these tumultuous times, we’re holding strong and diametrically opposed emotions – it’s a beautiful planet!  It’s a stupid world!)

As we all now know, on May 22 House Republicans narrowly passed a sweeping and devastating budget bill that harms low- and middle-income Americans and awards the ultra-wealthy. You’ve no doubt heard about threats to vital programs that benefit us all – like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP.  And you may have heard a brief mention about energy tax credits being rescinded. At first blush and relative to other impacts of this bill, that piece might not seem so devastating. It is.

In 2022, Democrats passed the first federal legislation ever to truly tackle climate-warming pollution and build an essential clean energy economy – the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).  As the IRA has been implemented over the last two-plus years, it’s built real momentum, provided economic certainty, boosted clean energy, assisted those who have been harmed the most by fossil fuel pollution, and, yes, tackled inflation. Overall, the IRA was projected to deliver $2.7 trillion in net economic benefits over the next 10 years!

We’ve spent the last few months reeling from the short-sighted and unlawful rollbacks of the IRA, and with this Reconciliation Bill, now we see that Republicans are only getting started in their backwards actions, preferring to increase air pollution, floods, extreme weather, and the burning of coal.

Climate advocates and policy nerds had been bracing for more rollbacks and, honestly, we don’t shock easily. But this budget bill is even worse than anticipated. Squashing rooftop solar in its tracks really is quite shocking!

One of the craziest things about rescinding the IRA is that it will actually cut jobs and increase energy prices. At a time when utility rates are rising and folks are struggling to pay these bills along with mortgages, and rent, why would we make it harder for everyday Americans to make ends meet?

There is now a plethora of detailed analyses of the harm this bill would cause. On the ever-helpful HEATMAP news site, renowned energy expert Jesse Jenkins is clear. When asked what this bill means for energy systems and the climate, Jenkins offers:

“… it is not good. And I wish I had some silver linings to pull out here, but they are non-existent …. Dismantling the current policy trajectory would result in a substantial increase in greenhouse gas emissions, on the order of half a gigaton, 500 million tons, by 2030, rising to over a billion metric tons, or a gigaton by 2035.

And at the same time it would, of course, slow the energy transition. So less deployment of clean electricity technologies, a slower uptake of electric vehicles, and other impacts across the economy. And all that also translates to higher energy costs for Americans, for households, for businesses...”

If you love the nerdy details, we highly recommend the full interview with Jenkins, in which he details this regressive assault: How the GOP megabill would reshape the US energy economy.

And here are a few more helpful distillations of what just happened:

·        Why killing home-energy tax credits would be bad for the economy (Canary Media)

·        One big, beautiful, climate-killing bill (Yale Climate Connections)

·        A truly dark day in DC and what you can do about it (Bill McKibben’s Substack)

So now what?

We know Montanans do not want families and businesses to lose their freedom to control their energy bills, especially when the budget also includes such sweeping and disastrous cuts to other programs Americans depend on to make ends meet. We need to double down on helping our Senators make better decisions for us all.

There was talk among House Republicans that they really wanted to keep much of the IRA, especially the popular tax credits and support for the clean energy manufacturing enterprises in their communities -- but they caved. Our job now is to tell our Senators we care about health, clean air, jobs, and the price of electricity and gas, and we are counting on them to grow their spines, make clear arguments, and stand in opposition to any budget that does this much harm.

They will never do this without loud and sustained pressure from We the People. Let’s commit to raising our voices and letting our elected leaders know that they will not be allowed to betray our country and our children’s futures. Stay curious. Get creative. Call today and keep calling. Then, grab a friend and go for a hike, or grab a kid and find some bugs – it’s a big, beautiful world out there. Take care, dear friends.

Amy Cilimburg is the Executive Director and Abby Huseth is the Deputy Director at Climate Smart Missoula. Climate Smart Missoula brings this Climate Connections column to twice per month. Learn more about our work, support our efforts, and sign up for our e-newsletter at missoulaclimate.org.