“It'll be between a scalpel and a sledgehammer,” was how Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House in the US, described how his Republican majority would approach stripping clean energy programmes in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Based on what happened last night, it’s more like a wrecking ball.
Sean Casten, Democratic congressman from Illinois, framed it simply - the fossil fuel industry was losing out to renewables, and so they’re using the US government to eliminate the competition. Watch:
The “Big Beautiful Bill”, as amended, inching towards passage is dismaying on several fronts, not just climate and energy. Plenty of others have more intelligent things to say on the broader impacts people will suffer due to cuts to healthcare, food support for children, education, and more - and how it represents the biggest wealth transfer from working and middle class Americans to billionaires. It’s also a power transfer to favoured industry sectors like oil and gas.1
The bill still may not pass2, but that would require at least a handful of Republicans to be willing to resist pressure from colleagues, Donald Trump, and a right-wing media ecosystem that promises to punish anyone who gets out of line. Backed with cash from Elon Musk to finance primary challenges.
Combined with the slow-rolling decimation of the US Department of Energy, with talent leaving in droves, the clear intent is to undermine the business case and investor confidence for clean energy and climate tech projects in the United States for decades to come. Even in areas that were previously thought to be favoured by Republicans - nuclear, geothermal, carbon capture.
So we caught up with Maeve Allsup, founding reporter at Latitude Media, who has been speaking to her industry and government sources trying to make sense of the carnage. Her coverage of the chaos-driven DoE brain drain, the Loan Programs Office, and the ongoing congressional fights over clean energy tax credits and incentives has been must-read - and she recently more than held her own in discussing all of it with Jigar Shah, until January one of the department’s top leaders, now one of the hosts of Open Circuit.
Are Carbon Dioxide Removals (CDR) Failing?
Related to that story is the fate of Climeworks, the marquee brand of the nascent carbon removals industry. Its plans for expansion in the US very much more uncertain than they were just a few months ago. The Guardian reported it will lay off more than 10% of staff - and it was attacked by critics who charge that the company is climate’s Theranos - a scam that has overpromised and underdelivered in removals. Some of the critiques are a bit unseemly in their dopamine-drenched glee at rushing to say “I told you so.”
Not so fast, say a round of people pushing back. In Heatmap, Jack Andreasen - formerly with Breakthrough Energy - hit back at critics. Friend-of-the-show Freya Pratty of Sifted.eu spoke to Climeworks, which claimed that while it may pull back in the US, it also might expand in the UK, Norway and other markets.
Who’s right? We spoke with Robert Höglund, co-founder of CDR.fyi - a leading source for tracking contracts and deliveries of durable carbon removals - who also is head of CDR at Milkywire, an impact firm that helps businesses invest in climate and nature projects.
Robert argues that this is just the next phase in the “hype cycle” - the framework made famous by Gartner that explains the somewhat predictable waxing and waning of sentiment about any new technology. And he pointed to a 2024 Carbon Gap paper worth reading that gets beyond the hype to focus on what’s real and what isn’t.
Two great conversations. A lot to get through. And the week isn’t close to over yet.
RIP Norm
I also indulge a bit of personal privilege to take a moment to mark the passing of George Wendt, aka “Norm” from Cheers. Dating myself to be sure, but the 80s sitcom has lived on in its clips. And if ever there was a week you might want to go drown your sorrows in a place where everybody knows your name, this is it.
01:26 Tribute to George Wendt
02:14 Elon Musk at the Qatar Economic Forum
04:53 Interview with Robert Höglund on Carbon Removals
05:31 Challenges in the Carbon Removal Industry
13:19 The Gartner Hype Cycle and Carbon Removal 1
7:08 Policy and Market Dynamics
21:49 Global Perspectives on Carbon Removal
28:59 Interview with Maeve Alsup on Washington Developments
30:49 Clean Tech Investments and Uncertainties
36:00 Geographical Distribution of IRA Investments
37:02 Surprising Early Drafts and Nuclear Concerns
38:19 Geothermal and Tax Credit Challenges
40:23 Uncertainty in Clean Energy Projects
45:01 Department of Energy and Staff Resignations
52:43 Loan Programs Office Under Scrutiny
It’s not just at the federal level. The Texas legislature just advanced a proposed law that would, in effect, ban offshore wind by preventing it connecting to ERCOT, the Texas power grid. The measure passed a key committee in a meeting that was closed to the public and not recorded.
If members of Congress do recover any sense of their own political survival - which presupposes that they need to worry about re-election. Which in 2025 America is no longer a given.
Share this post