Some Republican presidential candidates, including former President Donald Trump, are already targeting the IRA’s grant and loan spending.
Jeff Roberson/AP Photo
Still, DeSantis, the Florida governor, earlier this year blocked funding tied to the law in his state, while former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — now running for the GOP presidential nomination — called the law a “mistake” in a Bloomberg TV interview.
“They can slow things down, they can tighten criteria,” Jeff Navin, a partner at Boundary Stone Partners and former chief of staff at the Department of Energy, said about a potential Republican president. “There are a few discretionary programs they can refuse to exercise, like the increased authority for loan programs.”
Mandy Gunasekara, EPA’s chief of staff under Trump and a conservative energy policy advocate, said a GOP president would ask Congress for changes. But without strong Republican majorities, he or she would have to improvise.
The IRA created a $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The law also set up a $3 billion environmental and climate justice program. EPA is in the process of doling out the money.
“Any area where the government’s wastefully spending taxpayer money, that’s somewhere a Republican will want to scrutinize and, to the extent possible, cut back,” said Gunasekara.
Race to the finish line
The Treasury Department is still racing to finish guidance for some of the law’s tax incentives, and everything may not be done by Inauguration Day. Any pending work would be ripe for Republican intervention.
Some guidance documents may not be completed because of their complexity or because programs aren’t yet scheduled to take effect, such as a credit for technology-neutral net-zero power sources, which will replace the existing wind energy production tax credit and solar energy investment tax credit.
“I’d imagine if there is a change in administration, there’d be a freeze on new guidance until the new team came in place, and they could slow-walk that guidance and put in more restrictive or limited guidance,” Navin said. “I’d imagine the Biden team knows there’s this possibility. That’s why they’re prioritizing certain pieces of guidance over others.”
Hayes says a main concern is that Republican leaders may simply want to redirect spending away from the IRA to other priorities, rather than undermine it for ideological reasons.
“The best thing [the Biden team] can do is to get the implementing rules and guidance finalized in a legally defensible way so companies can march ahead with investments in projects and hiring people to build them,” he said.
Obamacare parallels
Republican attempts against the IRA echo how Trump and the GOP tried to both repeal and sabotage the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama and the Democrats’ signature health care law.
Trump and Republicans tried in 2017 to repeal most of the law, also known as Obamacare, but failed when then-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) voted against the effort.
“[Trump] was however able to change some of the rules and considerably weaken the law,” said Michael Doonan, a policy professor at Brandeis University.
Those actions included cutting funds for outreach to potential enrollees, slashing subsidies to insurers and reducing restrictions on insurance plans.
“If there is discretion in some of the funding for environmental projects, the administration could steer these towards projects to more supportive states, to allies in business or to minimize any adverse effect on the fossil fuel industry,” Doonan said of the climate law.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) after a press conference last month on the Inflation Reduction Act’s anniversary.
