Editor’s Note: Lean to the Left is pleased to present this statement, submitted yesterday, July 4, by Ari Matusiak regarding Trump’s horrific new tax law and what it means for our country. Matusiak is CEO of Rewiring America.
It is Independence Day, a day when we celebrate America’s founding and our ongoing project of creating a more perfect union for all of us. Our country is defined by this project: by our boldness, by our abundance and by our commitment to always moving forward.
The signing of the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” goes against that project and that spirit. Among other things, it amounts to a guaranteed increase in Americans’ energy bills. It repeals the most popular and effective clean energy tax credits for households, gutting programs that have helped millions of families cut their energy bills, modernize their homes, and ease strain on the electric grid. It will create an energy shortage with one hand while stripping Americans of the best tools to manage it with the other.
On this Independence Day, this bill will also serve to make Americans more dependent on volatile global fuel prices, and on Aging, inefficient infrastructure — at the grid level and in our own homes. At a time when we should be Investing in our energy freedom and resilience, providing more options, better Technology, and lower costs, this bill does the opposite.
And it doesn’t just burden families. This bill also undermines our competitiveness globally at precisely the time we need more abundant, affordable energy. Worse still, it introduces new subsidies for coal — the most wasteful and climate-polluting source of energy — which won’t generate cheap power here but will be shopped overseas to the highest bidder. This is not an all-of-the-above strategy for energy dominance. Instead, it’s a strategy that forfeits the field to our global competitors, including China.
And yet, that project we celebrate today — of creating a more perfect union — endures. Americans want clean power, lower bills and the ability to have and do more, not less. We want to continue being the economic powerhouse of the world, leading from the front and not scrambling to catch up from behind.
For those reasons, the self-inflicted setback of this bill will not define us. In spite of it, momentum remains everywhere you look. States are stepping up to lead where federal policy has failed, delivering real savings and real solutions to families. Private capital is looking to put Money behind win-win strategies of clean, low-cost energy that deliver shared value. And the insatiable demand for more power now, not later, will require these solutions, as they are the only ones that can reliably deliver what our Economy and communities need.
When the consequences of this bill come into sharper focus the opportunity for Washington to course correct and recommit to America winning the future will return. Because, in the end, the American people won’t settle for anything less.
Ari Matusiak is founder and chief executive officer of Rewiring America, the leading electrification nonprofit, focused on electrifying our homes, communities, and businesses.
