Federal clean energy incentives are (mostly) gone—but “the glass is more than half full,” according to a new report.
A new MIT report modeled the US power sector under two scenarios through 2035: 1) the Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBBA) and 2) the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act. The results paint a surprisingly rosy picture for renewables: More than two-thirds of the clean energy gains and emissions reductions from the original IRA survive attempts to roll them back under the OBBBA.
The details: 74% of new clean energy capacity and 71% of new clean generation remain under the OBBBA. Fossil generation, though, jumps 19% higher—largely from running existing coal and gas plants more.
The big picture: MIT argues the bottleneck to clean energy isn’t necessarily the loss of demand-side subsidies. Instead, it’s the pace of permitting, siting, and interconnection. 🐢 To speed things up and lower costs, we need…you guessed it, permitting reform and more transmission capacity.