Schumer Says Democrats Would Restore Clean Energy Tax Credits

Democrats’ energy agenda

Senator Chuck Schumer said Democrats would try to restore and expand tax credits for wind, solar and other renewable energy if they win control of Congress in the fall elections. He said the party would also seek to repeal more than $18 billion in new tax incentives for oil, gas and coal companies that were enacted in President Trump’s tax measure last year.

Schumer, the Senate minority leader, presented the plan as part of a broader effort to reduce energy costs for consumers. He said Democrats want to respond to concerns about the cost of living, especially energy prices, which were already high before U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran contributed to a further surge.

“We have to just build more clean energy,” Schumer said, arguing that it is the least expensive source of new electricity generation.

Legislative reality

Schumer acknowledged the political limits facing the proposal. Unless Democrats win veto-proof majorities in both chambers of Congress, a result that would require landslide victories nationwide, the measures are unlikely to become law.

Still, he said the agenda would serve as a policy and political contrast with Republicans, who largely eliminated the clean energy tax credits last year while approving new incentives for fossil fuel companies.

Broader priorities

Schumer said he would also prioritize a bipartisan effort to make it easier to build new infrastructure and increase the amount of energy available on the grid. He pointed as well to the need to upgrade the nation’s transmission lines.

He added that data centers should “pay their fair share” of taxes and energy infrastructure costs. The Trump administration has recently embraced that idea as well, though Democrats have criticized its approach as insufficient.