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Green Energy Sector 'Freaking Out' Over Climate Denier Trump's Return

Just weeks ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, the "stakes are high" for green-energy companies as they fear the upcoming right-wing takeover in both the White House and in the House of Representatives, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Per the report, "Significant reductions to tax credits, and Trump’s promised tariffs on imports, could reduce investment in new renewables plants by $350 billion over the next decade, said Chris Seiple, vice chairman of power and renewables at Wood Mackenzie."

The firms "are freaking out," the Journal reports, and "contacting incoming cabinet appointees, hunting for friendly members of the transition team and calling on Republican members of Congress, according to executives."

The Journal further notes:

Solar, wind and battery storage have been on a tear in recent years, with investment boosted by tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden’s signature climate law. About $75 billion in new projects connected to the grid between September 2022 and March, according to the American Clean Power Association.

Trump has called the IRA a scam and wants it repealed. His victory has plunged the renewable-power industry into a period of policy uncertainty. Few expect a wholesale repeal, but parts of the IRA are likely to be scrapped.

In the nation's capital, the newspaper reports, "the industry has gone into defense mode," as "executives traveled to the capital to meet with Republican members of Congress in December, people familiar with the matter say."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Why Trump's Massive Tax Gift To The Rich Makes Some Republicans Nervous

Despite Republicans keeping the House of Representatives and flipping control of the Senate, some are acknowledging that extending President-elect Donald Trump's tax cuts in 2025 will be a tall order.

In a recent Politico article, several Republican members of Congress expressed worry that renewing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TJCA) of 2017 could be difficult given its $4.6 trillion price tag. While the initial legislation came with an estimated cost of $1.5 trillion over 10 years, Politico reported that extending the approximately 40 provisions in the law would come in at a cost of $4 trillion over that same time period, with another $600 billion in interest.

The bulk of those tax cuts overwhelmingly benefit the rich. According to CNN, an analysis from July found that if the TJCA was extended next year, the richest five percent of taxpayers would reap almost half the benefits. Those making $450,000 and up would see their incomes increase by 3.2 percent, while the richest one percent — who make $1 million a year or more – would get an average tax cut of nearly $70,000. And the top 0.1 percent richest Americans would see a whopping $280,000 average reduction in their own taxes.

Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL), who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee (which oversees tax-related matters) was skeptical that the GOP would be able to easily pass the new tax cuts without a big fight even among members of his own party.

"That’s going to be the biggest challenge for the [House Republican] conference," he said.

Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), who chairs the House Budget Committee, is also wary of any new tax cuts that will add to the federal deficit. In order to make the new round of tax cuts deficit-neutral, Arrington is pondering pairing them with cuts to Medicaid (the health insurance program for the poorest Americans), repealing green energy tax breaks and increasing taxes on corporate profits booked overseas that get repatriated. But House Ways and Means chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) told Politico he was less concerned about paying for a new round of tax cuts.

"“Look at history — were the Bush tax cuts paid for?” He said.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

If Not For Swing State's GOP Gerrymander, Democrats Would Control House

While Democrats lost control of the White House and the Senate in the 2024 election, they might well have flipped control of the House of Representatives were it not for a controversial move by Republican lawmakers in one battleground state.

In a Wednesday tweet, Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-NC) claimed that "North Carolina's gerrymandered maps changed the nation." The freshman congressman — who announced in 2023 that he would not seek a second term — further argued: "The three seats stolen from Democrats (mine included) cost Democrats control of the U.S. House of Representatives."

"Without a brutal mid-census NC GOP gerrymander @RepJeffries would be the next Speaker in a 218-217 House," Nickel added, mentioning the official handle of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in his tweet.

Nickel's opinion was also shared by NBC News reporter Sahil Kapur, who posted to Bluesky that the current partisan makeup of the House as of this week stands at 220 Republican seats and 214 Democratic seats. In the one contest yet to be decided in California's 13th Congressional District, Rep. John Duarte (R-CA is narrowly trailing his Democratic opponent Adam Gray by roughly 200 votes. If Gray prevails, that would put Democrats at 215 seats.

However, the House's Republican majority becomes even more tenuous after the 119th Congress is sworn in on January 3. At that point, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) will officially leave the House. When President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) will join his administration as National Security Advisor. And if Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), currently House Republican Conference chair, is confirmed as the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, the GOP could end up with the tiniest of majorities.

"Could be a 220-215 majority, which shrinks to 217-215 early 2025 when you subtract Gaetz, Stefanik, Waltz," Kapur wrote. "The GOP gerrymander in North Carolina (flipped 3 Dem seats) saved their majority."

The gerrymander went through last fall, when North Carolina Republicans ignored court-drawn maps in 2022 to propose new redistricting maps that effectively turned four previously Democratic districts into districts that heavily favored Republicans. Even though Democratic Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the maps, the GOP supermajority overrode him, making the maps official for the 2024 election.

Lindsey Prather, a Democratic lawmaker in the Tar Heel State, blasted her Republican colleagues in a tweet, and called for an independent redistricting process to propose fairer maps.

""I want to take a second & acknowledge the sheer insanity that is [North Carolina politics]," Rep. Prather posted. "We need nonpartisan, independent redistricting. We shouldn't be waiting w/bated breath for maps that were drawn in secret. This shouldn't be exciting. It should be a boring thing that happens every 10 years."

The new maps will likely remain in place until after the 2030 Census. However, Democrats were able to break the Republican supermajority in the Tar Heel State legislature this November despite Republicans' wins at the federal level. And Attorney General Josh Stein won North Carolina's gubernatorial election, keeping the governor's mansion in Democratic hands through at least 2028.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Kinzinger: Moscow Is Celebrating Nomination Of Its Stooge Vance

One former Republican member of the House of Representatives is warning that Russia is rooting for Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), who is former President Donald Trump's 2024 running mate, to become vice president.

The Hill reported that during a Monday night interview with The Late Show's Stephen Colbert, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) cautioned viewers that it isn't just Americans who are paying attention to Vance's pending nomination as the GOP's pick for vice president. He suggested Vance's ascension to become Trump's right hand was welcome news to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"They are celebrating that choice, both in Milwaukee tonight and in Moscow," Kinzinger said.

“JD Vance is the one that has … very loudly talked about how he doesn’t care what happens in Ukraine. He has opposed aid to Ukraine,” he continued. “At a time where, since World War II, the biggest defense of a country, of freedom, that is happening right now.”

Kinzinger, who served in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Vance's past opposition to supporting Ukraine in its ongoing war to defend its territory from occupying Russian forces could mean that the U.S. abandons the eastern European democracy should Trump win a second term. He accused the Ohio Republican of "aggressively parrot[ing] actual Russian talking points" in railing against funds for Ukraine.

"I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other," Vance told former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon — who is now serving a federal prison sentence — in a 2022 episode of his podcast.

Vance has already taken the position that disputed territories like Donbas in the east along with Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014 and resulted in Russia getting kicked out of the G8 (now G7), should be officially ceded to Putin to end the war.

"[The Russia-Ukraine war] ends the way nearly every single war has ever ended: when people negotiate and each side gives up something that it doesn’t want to give up,” Vance said in December. “No one can explain to me how this ends without some territorial concessions relative to the 1991 boundaries.”

A foreign policy expert told the Ohio Capital Journal last month that making territorial concessions to Putin would likely embolden him and that Russia is on the verge of relenting due to staggering losses.

“We need to flip the script,” said Charles A. Kupchan, who is an international affairs professor at Georgetown University . “We need to make it clear to the Russian leadership and the Russian people that we have more staying power than they do. Ultimately, the Russians are going to tire of this. They’ve lost somewhere around 350,000 people dead and wounded. This is a war that is imposing very considerable costs on Russia. The key here is to make sure that we convince Putin that we’re going to stay the course. It’s only then that I think you’ll see him cease and desist.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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Smart. Sharp. Funny. Fearless

Green Energy Sector 'Freaking Out' Over Climate Denier Trump's Return

Why Trump's Massive Tax Gift To The Rich Makes Some Republicans Nervous

If Not For Swing State's GOP Gerrymander, Democrats Would Control House

Kinzinger: Moscow Is Celebrating Nomination Of Its Stooge Vance

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