You don’t have to look far to spot the harmful consequences of the Trump administration’s sprawling new federal budget. In the months since Congress passed the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” Wisconsinites have already begun to feel its impact: higher energy costs, setbacks to clean energy progress, gutted programs that keep air pollution out of schools, and so much more.
Now, Wisconsinites are dealing with the fallout of this ugly legislation as big oil, gas and tech companies reap billions in subsidies and tax breaks.
One of the bill’s key provisions includes sweeping cuts to federal tax credits and incentives for clean energy projects, despite the fact that wind and solar are the cheapest sources of energy. Repealing federal support for clean energy projects while loosening regulations and eliminating roadblocks for dirty energy means utilities have more incentives to build new fossil fuel infrastructure. This drives up both pollution and household energy bills across Wisconsin.
Among other incentives that put our environment at risk, the “Big Ugly Bill”:
- Expands tax breaks for oil and gas companies
- Provides new tax incentives to make data center construction more appealing for tech companies
- Allows corporations to pay to fast-track projects that will emit pollution, sidestepping the environmental regulatory process
- Reduces the royalty rates big oil and gas companies pay to lease public lands
- Dismantles vehicle and methane emission standards
- Mandates at least four million more acres of federal land to be opened for coal mining
- Requires approval of at least 50% of federal lands targeted for private drilling, mining and logging projects
- Allows oil companies to access the carbon capture tax credit, which was meant to support new technology that captures carbon emissions and stores them underground, but now oil companies can get that tax break for injecting carbon into wells to extract more oil
- Guts programs that keep air pollution out of schools
- Cuts tax credits that helped car buyers buy new and used electric vehicles
Wisconsin spends $14 billion a year to bring in fossil fuels from other states and countries so we can burn them in our communities. Yet we have wind and solar energy sources that are cheap and plentiful right here. So why are our elected officials supporting a budget that helps oil and gas producing states like Louisiana and Texas and hurts Wisconsin? Wisconsinites around the state are asking the same question.
“I am really concerned about what the cost of energy will be for our household. It was outrageous last year and I’m afraid to see what it will be this winter,” Clean Wisconsin member Sandra of Fond du Lac said in a message to her representative, Wisconsin Congressman Glenn Grothman. “We should invest in clean, affordable energy and not be held hostages to the whims and politics of the global oil and gas market. The cost of energy should be near the top of your list.”
The list of attacks on clean energy and our environment doesn’t stop there. Other cost and energy saving measures — like a pair of tax credits that helped car buyers save thousands of dollars on new and used electric vehicles — were also eliminated to make the transition away from fossil fuels more difficult and costly.
An analysis by Energy Innovation shows slashing investments in clean energy will make the transition to cheap, sustainable energy like wind and solar more difficult, and Wisconsin residents will be left to cover the costs. The analysis predicts that the average Wisconsinite is likely to pay $300 more on energy bills each year by 2035.
As Wisconsinites like Sandra worry about how they’re going to pay their energy bills this winter, provisions within the “Big Ugly Bill” to bolster AI capabilities in the U.S. are adding massive strain to our electric grids. A recent analysis by Clean Wisconsin shows that just two of the several hyperscale data centers planned for Wisconsin (those in Mount Pleasant and Port Washington) will use far more energy than every home in the state combined. As of October, there were at least five new data centers planned for construction in Wisconsin.
Additional tax credits within the “Big Ugly Bill” are already making data center construction more enticing. Benefits like immediate tax deductions that cover much of the up-front cost for these hyperscale facilities means they’ll be easier to build, bringing with them huge increases in energy demand, more strain on our electrical grid, and plenty of unanswered questions.
There’s never a good time to cut investments in clean energy, but it’s difficult to imagine a more inopportune moment than the one we’re in right now. Whichever way you slice it, Congress is putting special interest groups ahead of average Wisconsinites. It’s time for us to speak out and demand better. It’s time for our representatives to serve us. Make your voice heard and write to your representative today!
