2 weeks Ago
Chesapeake will soon boast the single tallest building between Philadelphia and Charlotte. LS Greenlink, owner of this towering submarine-cable manufacturing facility, is already hiring its first of 330 planned employees for the site. Now imagine yourself as one of these employees: You buy safety gear, budget your new salary, and plan family schedules around your new hours.
Then you find out the plant is shuttered. That’s what’s at stake for Chesapeake and workers at 127 new projects being developed across Virginia if tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are repealed. The $681 million cable factory is the biggest economic investment in Chesapeake history, announced after being awarded a $99 million tax credit funded by the 2022 federal IRA — the largest investment in clean energy, manufacturing and economic development ever passed by Congress.
Unfortunately, IRA investments — such as Greenlink’s submarine cables — could soon be underwater because congressional Republicans intend to axe tax credits like the one funding the factory’s construction. In late February, House Republicans unilaterally passed a bill requiring Congress to slash federal spending by $2 trillion and IRA tax credits are among the first on the political chopping block. The catch is that these tax credits are already stimulating economic growth, especially where Republicans live.
The bill has generated $600 billion in investment , including $290 billion in company-led investment in 2,060 manufacturing and energy deployment projects nationwide, creating 406,000 jobs . And for every $4 invested in manufacturing because of the IRA, $3 has gone to congressional districts represented by Republicans such as Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, home to LS Greenlink’s new factory. “This transformative project not only strengthens our economy but also solidifies Chesapeake’s status in the offshore wind manufacturing industry,” said Mayor Rick West.
The federal government made a commitment to the Hampton Roads region by awarding this incentive to Greenlink; repealing these credits would steal opportunities away from workers and devastate communities such as Chesapeake. Independent analyses show IRA tax credits are also cutting American energy bills. A collaborative study from universities, think tanks, national labs and a federal agency projected IRA would reduce electricity bills 4.
5% by 2030 and up to 8.6% in the following decades. A recent analysis for the right-leaning group ConservAmerica estimates repealing just two IRA tax credits would spike consumer electricity costs $51 billion annually by 2035.
We’ll be forced to pay similar costs here in Virginia, where IRA repeal would raise household energy bills by $1 billion over the next 10 years. Industry experts agree. Todd Brickhouse, CEO of North-Dakota based utility Basin Electric Power Cooperative, said repealing IRA tax credits “will not allow utilities to plan for and avoid increased costs, and .
.. immediately harm ratepayers.
” John Ketchum, CEO of Florida-based utility NextEra, warned “if you take renewables and storage off the table, we’re going to force electricity prices to the moon.” Thankfully, four GOP senators and 21 House Republicans — including the 2nd District’s Rep. Jen Kiggans — are trying to keep facilities such as Chesapeake’s cable factory afloat and keep energy prices from swamping families by urging their party to protect the tax credits.
These representatives point out clean energy is critical to the Trump administration’s “energy dominance” initiative. The House letter warns repealing the credits “would increase utility bills the very next day.” The Senate letter urges colleagues to protect tax credits that spur manufacturing, affordability, and investment certainty.
Sign up for Viewpoints, an opinion newsletter What happens behind the closed doors of budget negotiations may never become public, but the outcome will affect us for generations. Our representatives should protect the clean energy credits. There’s something counterintuitive about needing a sky-high building to manufacture cables that’ll sit on the ocean floor.
But it’s even more counterintuitive to repeal laws that save Americans money, strengthen energy security and power our economy, just to score political points. Dan O’Brien of Arlington is a senior modeling analyst at nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation..
