The Fourth of July is a celebration of America’s independence, the conscious decision to remove itself from a distant country that taxed and regulated, without representation. Two hundred fifty years later, Americans are still fighting a lesser version of that same battle, but that adversary is an overly complex regulatory regime that added billions in green energy mandates to household utility bills, and a tax code that picked energy winners and losers regardless of what the market or the consumer actually needed. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s (OBBBA’s) energy provisions are, at their core, a declaration of that same independence.
The law’s repeal of the poorly named Inflation Reduction Act’s costly green energy subsidies, which ironically helped increase inflation, reduced a key burden on American households. It ended things like the residential clean energy credit, the clean vehicle credit, the clean electricity production and investment credits, which were never free money, but rather a forced payment from taxpayers to green energy companies. And yet, despite the ending of these credits, renewable energy is still growing, including in states like Texas, the national leader in renewable energy production. The OBBBA simply allows the energy market to work as a market should, and in the process help lower the cost of energy overall.
The reality is, if these credits had remained in place, any chance of lowering the cost of utility bills would have been more difficult, if not impossible, as taxpayers would continue to pay extra for projects that do not, or cannot, deliver electricity whenever it’s needed.
The bill also worked to reduce the federal permitting chokepoint, a key factor of why the cost of energy is rising. The bill allows for expedited permitting procedures if a project sponsor pays a fee for an environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement and places response deadlines on federal agencies in those situations. Additional provisions restore lease sales for onshore oil and gas and offshore energy, including in Alaska’s coastal plain. Increased federal acreage is opened for coal mining. Even more so, the bill reforms and clears the way for increased natural gas production and exports, a key backbone of both domestic and global energy production. Without increased U.S. production, the closure of the Straight of Hormuz would have been considerably worse. The unlocking of these key resources helps to open the door to new energy production, ensuring that the U.S. is the global producer of energy,
Despite OBBBA’s improvements to American energy production, it does not mean all is magically fixed. There is plenty of work still to do, and just like in 1776, the fight for independence was not won that day, but eventually culminated in Washington’s final victory at Yorktown five years later. Repealing costly subsidies is not the same as building a pipeline or a generation facility. Unfortunately, a snap of the fingers will not suddenly get new energy production and transmission onto the grid. Congress was wise to pass this bill, as it is a key first step forward in lowering the cost of energy, and ensuring the nation is energy independent. The fight is not over yet, but there’s still plenty to celebrate this Fourth of July.
James Morrone is an Energy Policy Analyst at Americans for Prosperity.
