Senate Republicans have passed a bill that will mean more pollution, higher energy costs, more extraction on public lands, and lost jobs here in Wisconsin. The so-called ‘Big, Beautiful, Bill’ is a gift to big oil at the expense of Wisconsin families and our environment.
The Senate Bill:
- Rips away incentives to help families and businesses save energy
- Eliminates tax credits for wind and solar projects
- Guts USDA technical assistance that helps farmers protect water and soil
- Gives more tax breaks to big oil and gas
- Allows corporations to pay to fast-track projects that emit pollution
- Rescinds moratorium on new coal leasing
- Reduces the royalty rates big oil & gas companies pay to lease public lands
- Dismantles vehicle and methane emissions standards
- Ends tax credits for clean vehicles, including cars and school buses
- Eliminates programs to reduce air pollution in schools
- Pulls funding to help the EPA address hydrofluorocarbons
- Cuts funding for the National Park Service and Forest Service
- Requires the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to more than double timber harvesting on public lands
“This will mean an uglier, more harmful environment for everyone,” says Clean Wisconsin Energy and Air Manager Ciaran Gallagher. “The bill makes it easier for polluters to put toxins in our environment, easier for big oil and gas companies to make profits on the backs of Wisconsinites, and harder for families to afford their energy bills. It doesn’t make any economic sense and is forfeiting the jobs and growth we’ve seen in Wisconsin from clean energy development. Families in our state will suffer because of it – higher bills, more pollution, and a real risk of blackouts. The key to our energy independence is wind and solar, energy sources that are readily available here.”
Gallagher notes that propping up expensive coal, oil and gas while stifling cheaper wind and solar could lead to a true energy crisis.
“We are seeing tremendous increases in energy demand driven in part by AI data centers, yet this bill will turn our country away from inexpensive wind and solar that can be added to the grid quickly. I wouldn’t be surprised to see blackouts as utilities struggle to get fossil fuel plants built fast enough, and we will no doubt see spikes in energy costs,” Gallagher says.
The budget bill embraces climate-warming fossil fuels on the heels of a dangerous heatwave that engulfed much of the U.S. less than two weeks ago. The bill now heads back to the House of Representatives for approval.
“If this gets signed into law, it will be a sad day for Wisconsinites and for our future generations,” says Gallagher
