Yellen warns that the end of US clean energy tax credit would increase consumer costs
U.S. Treasury secretary Janet Yellen will warn on Thursday that any attempt to rollback the Biden administration’s clean energy tax credit would increase costs for families and threaten new investments in U.S. Manufacturing that are creating jobs.
In excerpts from remarks that she will deliver on a visit to Raleigh, North Carolina Yellen said that across the nation, families have claimed 8,4 billion dollars in energy tax credit that would lower their long-term energy bills.
Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, has promised to repeal many of Joe Biden’s clean energy regulations for electric vehicles and power plants. Trump also announced that he will end hundreds of millions of dollars of tax subsidies enacted by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, saying he will end the "green scam" and redirect the funds to building roads and bridges.
Yellen, without mentioning Trump by name, said that eliminating the IRA’s clean energy tax credit "would be a historical mistake."
In excerpted comments, Yellen stated that "rolling them back" could increase costs for working families.
It could threaten the significant investments we are seeing in manufacturing here and across the nation, as well as the jobs that go with them. Many of these jobs don't even require a degree.
She said that a rollback would "give China a leg up" as it is heavily investing in clean energy industries. The Biden administration will soon announce their final plans to increase tariffs on Chinese products such as solar cells, batteries and electric vehicles.
Recent polling before the Nov. 5, 2016 presidential election has shown that Kamala Harris is virtually tied with Trump and the Democratic nominee in North Carolina. This gives Democrats the opportunity to flip the state, which Trump narrowly took in 2020 after his loss against Biden.
Yellen's comments emphasized consumer savings through IRA tax credits. This is in line with Harris economic proposals aimed to curb rising living costs in the United States, which Harris unveiled also in Raleigh.
She said Treasury statistics show that 90,000 North Carolina families have claimed more than $100 million in residential tax credits for clean energy installations such as solar panels and energy-storage batteries. The average claim was $5,000. North Carolina families claimed an average of $880 in energy efficiency tax credit for heat pumps and efficient air conditioning.
Yellen will visit Wake Tech Community College. The college has received federal funding for the launch of training programs in electric vehicles and advanced construction technologies. (Reporting and editing by Stephen Coates; David Lawder)
(source: Reuters)
