GOP States Reap Solar Boom From Law Their Party Opposed

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, DC – While Republican leaders continue to champion fossil fuels and vow to repeal green energy subsidies, voters and businesses in GOP strongholds have already embraced the clean energy revolution—especially solar.

Since the passage of Democrat President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022, dozens of solar manufacturing companies have sprung up across the U.S. to meet surging demand for American-made clean energy equipment. The law’s lucrative tax incentives have sparked a solar boom—one that’s disproportionately benefiting Republican-led states.

Utah, for instance, has seen more than $3 billion in clean energy investment linked to the IRA, with another $10 billion in the pipeline. The state already generates nearly 20% of its electricity from renewables, primarily solar, and about 9% of homes have rooftop panels, Reuters reports.

In fact, red states have captured a staggering 75% of manufacturing investments spurred by the IRA, according to the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation. Yet not a single Republican in Congress voted for the law.

Nationwide, the IRA has triggered at least $132 billion in announced investments for major energy projects. Two-thirds of those projects are located in Republican-held congressional districts—including in Texas, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Michigan—turning the GOP’s voter base into unlikely beneficiaries of a Democratic policy, Reuters noted.

But the future of that investment is now in limbo. President Donald Trump’s proposed “One Big Beautiful Bill,” now before the Senate, seeks to gut the very tax credits that powered this solar surge. A recent version from a Senate committee would sunset wind and solar subsidies by 2028—years ahead of the IRA’s original schedule.

Though Trump has called the IRA’s clean energy provisions “expensive, unnecessary and harmful to business,” some Republicans from states that are reaping the economic benefits are pushing back.

Senator John Curtis of Utah is among four GOP senators urging their party not to pull the plug too early. In an April letter to Senate Minority Leader John Thune, Curtis—along with Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Thom Tillis (North Carolina), and Jerry Moran (Kansas)—warned that rolling back the tax credits would “disrupt investment and job creation.”