July 23, 2025

Wyden Blasts Republicans Over Manufactured Energy Crisis

Washington, D.C. – Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today blasted congressional Republicans during a committee hearing for ending clean energy tax credits in their disastrous budget bill, triggering a significant decrease in energy supply when demand is skyrocketing.

“The Republicans have been doing favors for their Big Oil buddies at the consumers’ expense, and that’s a major reason why energy bills are going through the roof,” Wyden said at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing. “Fossil fuels cannot meet our demand today. If we’re going to meet demand we need solar and wind, we need these alternatives.”

In 2022, Wyden authored the clean energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act that encourage innovation and choice in energy markets by boosting technology-neutral tax credits. The Inflation Reduction Act also included substantial tax credits for domestic manufacturing of solar, wind, and battery components, and the processing of critical minerals. In the wake of passage of the Inflation Reduction Act into law, the United States saw an unprecedented clean energy and manufacturing boom.

Forecasts showed the clean energy tax credits would have taken meaningful long-term steps to securing U.S. energy independence by reducing oil consumption by up to 24 percent by 2030, increasing potential natural gas exports by more than 20 percent, reducing oil demand (and thus prices) and providing alternative sources of energy to Europe. Clean energy supply also helps keep energy costs down for households and creates good-paying jobs.

The cancellation of these credits by Republicans under their budget bill, comes when energy demand is soaring. By 2030, electricity demand may grow substantially; one estimate suggests demand will grow by as much as 25 percent relative to 2023 due to increased use of data centers for advanced computing that requires significant energy. Wyden sounded the alarm that doing away with these sources of energy will leave the energy grid unable to meet skyrocketing demand, plunge the country into an energy crisis, and raise utility costs for families nationwide.

Video is here