Capito-led panel reconciliation bill text would make deep green energy, climate cuts

But the Senate Environment and Public Works text released Wednesday closely mirrors that of the rollbacks in its jurisdiction already passed by the House, further endangering programs enacted in 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act by the then-Democrat-controlled Congress.

Rollbacks revealed to be very much still on the table Wednesday could have an especially significant impact in West Virginia given the state’s anachronistic reliance on coal and efforts by environmental and renewable energy advocates to reduce pollution and deploy cleaner energy.

Capito touted her committee’s proposed cut-off of unobligated dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act in a statement Wednesday.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues to move our legislative package forward to enact President [Donald] Trump’s agenda, which the American people overwhelmingly support,� Capito said.

But critics say the Environment and Public Works bill text would escalate air pollution and energy prices while accelerating harmful pollution and climate change.

“This bill is every bit the betrayal of American families we knew it would be,� Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., the Environment and Public Works panel’s top-ranking Democrat, said in a statement Wednesday.

The Republicans’ budget reconciliation legislative framework, including the House bill that passed last month, has been designed to extend tax cuts first created under Trump in 2017 that benefit the wealthy. The House legislation would enact sweeping cuts to Medicaid and food benefits for low-income people.

“This [Senate Environment and Public Works Committee] bill betrays West Virginians seeking jobs in clean energy industries of the future, and locks us into dirty energy and a dying fossil fuel industry, all to provide tax breaks for billionaires,� Jim Kotcon, chair of the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club, said Thursday.

Cuts target anti-pollution, review time improvement funds

The bill would repeal an Environmental Protection Agency rule finalized last year to reduce air pollution from light-duty and medium-duty vehicles starting over model years 2027 through 2032, which the EPA projected last year would save the average driver $6,000 over the lifetime of a new vehicle from reduced fuel and maintenance costs and yield $72 billion in climate benefits.

The bill would pause an Inflation Reduction Act tax on methane emissions for 10 years. It would create a new, optional fee mechanism for project sponsors to get expedited timelines for their project environmental reviews — a move that critics have derided as “pay to play.�

The bill also would repeal a wide range of Inflation Reduction Act programs and rescind any unobligated funds for them, including:

• A grant program that has awarded grants and rebates to states, municipalities and school districts to fast-track replacement of internal combustion engine heavy-duty vehicles with zero-emission vehicles
• The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which appropriated $27 billion to the EPA to enable low-income communities to benefit from zero-emission technologies, with $500 million awarded to lending intermediary Appalachian Community Capital to establish climate and clean energy projects in rural and coal communities
• EPA funding for monitoring and reducing air pollution and providing technical assistance to address environmental issues at schools in low-income communities
• An initiative to update EPA technology infrastructure and software for compliance monitoring and inspections
• An initiative to improve environmental review times
• Environmental and climate justice block grants for community-based nonprofits and their partnerships with local governments and institutions of higher education for climate resiliency and adaptation activities, reducing indoor air pollution, community-led pollution monitoring and related workforce development
• Funding for the Fish and Wildlife Service to develop and implement recovery plans under the Endangered Species Act

WV Coal Association head applauds bill text 

West Virginia Coal Association president Chris Hamilton applauded the bill text Wednesday.

"We wholeheartedly support the work of the U.S. Senate EPW Committee under the leadership of Senator Capito,� Hamilton said, noting the legislation would pause requirements passed under former President Joe Biden to fast-track what he called “the nonsensical, zero-carbon economy.�

Community air monitoring has filled in substantial geographic gaps in state and federal air monitoring in West Virginia. Gary Zuckett, co-director of West Virginia Citizen Action Group, a progressive advocacy organization, argued community air monitoring should be supported with federal funds.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection on Thursday announced an air quality advisory due to elevated particulate matter, or soot, from Canadian wildfire smoke – a recurring hazard that community air monitoring in West Virginia has highlighted.

Zuckett called the optional fee mechanism for project sponsors to get expedited timelines for their project environmental reviews “simply a ‘pay to play’ way to accelerate environmentally destructive proposals� that should be removed from the bill.

Evergreen Action, a national climate advocacy group, decried the Senate Environment and Public Works panel bill text, arguing it was consistent with congressional Republicans “taking a wrecking ball to dozens of programs that make energy affordable for households, reduce toxic pollution, combat the climate crisis, provide life-changing healthcare, and nourish families with food assistance.�

Whitehouse similarly predicted targeting the methane emissions fee and auto emissions standards would raise energy prices, worsen air quality and “turbocharge climate change.�

“Senate Republicans sell out the American people so Big Oil can sell more gasoline,� Whitehouse said.

Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment.

China, other countries spending more on clean energy

Evidence emerged Thursday that congressional Republicans’ spurning of renewable energy is out of step on the world stage — and that it could be a stumbling block for the U.S. in its competition with China.

Around $2.2 trillion is going collectively to renewables, nuclear, grids, storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency and electrification — twice as much as $1.1 trillion going to oil, natural gas and coal, according to the International Energy Agency’s annual World Energy Investment publication released Thursday.

The IEA, a global intergovernmental organization, found China’s share of global clean energy spending has climbed from a quarter to nearly a third through investments in a wide array of technologies, including solar, wind, hydropower, nuclear, batteries and electric vehicles.

Investments in fossil fuels were 30% higher than those in electricity generation, grids and storage just a decade ago, the IEA said. But this year, electricity investments are set to be some 50% higher than the total amount being spent on bringing oil, gas and coal to market, per the IEA. 

“[A] new Age of Electricity is drawing nearer,� the IEA said in a statement.

West Virginia has lagged in the energy transition, relying on by far the nation’s highest share of electricity fired by coal and, in 2015, becoming the first state to repeal a renewable energy portfolio standard.

'Extremely disappointing'

The independent, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Thursday released an analysis of the House-approved reconciliation bill finding it would increase deficits from 2025 to 2034 by $2.4 trillion, a day after it released a projection that bill provisions would result in 10.9 million people losing their health insurance.

Capito brushed aside the CBO’s $2.4 trillion deficit projection while speaking with reporters Thursday, asserting the U.S. economy outperformed CBO projections regarding the impacts of the 2017 tax cuts congressional Republicans are now moving to extend.

But a January 2025 analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal policy research nonprofit, found that revenue collection has closely matched CBO projections regarding the 2017 tax cuts when adjusting for inflation, contradicting claims that higher economic growth from the tax cuts resulted in a sustained increase in revenue collection.

Other sections of the Senate reconciliation bill are expected to be released by the body's other committees well ahead of what congressional leaders have set as a July 4 target date for its final passage.  

West Virginia Environmental Council lobbyist Kasey Russell said Thursday Capito should hold a town hall in West Virginia to hear directly from people who would be impacted by cuts her committee has proposed, including its move to shutter the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

“Congress’ attacks on programs aimed at repairing the legacy of environmental harm — especially in West Virginia — are extremely disappointing,� Russell said.