Multiple ads ask U.S. Senator Todd Young to protect clean energy tax credits
Advocates for federal clean energy tax credits are speaking directly to U-S Senators through ads — including Todd Young of Indiana. The credits help pay for everything from solar and wind projects to nuclear and carbon storage.
Ads from at least three different groups show there’s support for clean energy on both sides of the aisle.
The ads have a lot in common. They all mention how the tax credits lower electric bills, create jobs and keep U.S. manufacturing globally competitive.
The campaign Built for America takes a more conservative bent. The coalition of industries is more concerned about ensuring America is a leader in manufacturing and energy rather than avoiding climate impacts.
“Trump country is booming. We’re building, hiring and winning in Indiana,” the TV ad said.
Built for America executive director Mitch Carmichael served as West Virginia’s lieutenant governor and the state’s secretary of economic development.
He said West Virginia created more than a thousand manufacturing jobs with the help of clean energy tax credits — including through building a battery plant and a solar-powered microgrid.
“There’s nothing more conservative, really, than providing low-cost taxes on businesses that are creating jobs and on-shoring manufacturing in America,” Carmichael said.
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Steph Speirs is a clean energy entrepreneur who teaches climate solutions at Yale. She’s a leader in the Protect Our Jobs ad campaign representing clean energy workers and businesses.
Speirs said red states like Indiana have benefitted the most from clean energy projects spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act.
“And they’re the ones that are currently leading the charge to take away the tax credits. So we’re just trying to tell senators and Congress folks that if they want to do what’s in the best interest of workers in their own states and districts, they need to keep those tax credits,” she said.
The clean energy trade group Advanced Energy United has put out an ad campaign as well. It said the tax credits are expected to generate more than $170 billion in private sector and manufacturing investments combined in Indiana in the next decade.
U.S. Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) sits on the Senate’s finance committee — a key committee looking at the reconciliation bill.
Rebecca is our energy and environment reporter. Contact her at rthiele@iu.edu or on Signal at IPBenvironment.01. Follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.
