Speaking to the Reuters news agency, the CEO of Edison International, Pedro Pizarro, highlighted that one of the sector’s main priorities will be to emphasize the benefits of the IRA. “
Most of these benefits do not actually accrue to our shareholders. They go directly to our construction industry and our customers
Pizarro said on the sidelines of the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan.
The IRA passed in 2022 includes hundreds of billions of dollars in support for clean energy developmentand is billed as outgoing President Joe Biden’s climate change law. President-elect Donald Trump, a climate change skeptic, has pledged to repeal the law, but would need congressional support to do so.
Members of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), an industry trade group, have already contacted Trump’s transition team and with Republican members of Congress to convince them of the importance of keeping the IRA. EEI’s members include major US and international investor-owned utilities such as AES, Edison International, Duke Energy and Southern Company.
Pizarro emphasized that the tax incentives included in the IRA, which apply to energy storage, transmission, nuclear power, hydrogen and electric vehicles, among others, are key to the continued growth of the industry. “It really applies to everything,” he added.
However, as reported by Reuters Trump’s transition team is already working on a plan to eliminate the $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric vehicle purchases as part of broader tax reform legislation.
A group representing electric vehicle and battery makers, including Rivian, Tesla and Panasonic, also called on Trump on Friday not to eliminate tax breaks for electric cars, pointing to the potential negative impact on key Republican-voting states.
EEI members plan to lobby representatives on Capitol Hill in the coming months. “We will be very active there to explain the benefits of the IRA,” Pizarro concluded his statement.
The cover image is an illustration. Cover image source: Portfolio
Source: www.portfolio.hu
