Preventing the Repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act Must be Priority #1 for Clean Energy Champions – Defeat the Chaos Monkey
This blog post highlights the significant risks to clean energy deployment, affordability, and grid resilience posed by proposed rollbacks to the Inflation Reduction Act.
Preventing the Repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act Must be Priority #1 for Clean Energy Champions – Defeat the Chaos Monkey
Repealing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) takes the United States off the path toward renewables-based energy independence and will directly result in higher energy prices for consumers. Since January, uncertainty over tariffs and IRA repeal has prompted companies to cancel or downsize $14 billion in clean energy investments [1] and cut more than 10,000 jobs. That’s just the beginning if fossil fuel interests—and their “Chaos Monkey”—prevail.
A Chaos Monkey is a tool — and a broader concept — used in software engineering and IT operations to intentionally disrupt systems in order to test their resilience and fault tolerance. As a metaphor, it captures exactly what the House and Senate versions of the One Big Beautiful Bill do—jettison core IRA provisions that underpin America’s clean-energy economy, injecting unpredictable policy shocks that threaten our transition.
Let’s cut to the chase – who will benefit from repealing the IRA? Only legacy fossil fuel interests, and those who seek major disruptions to the economy (e.g., Chaos Monkeys). The IRA is a monumental piece of legislation that has single-handedly shifted the trajectory of the nation’s energy future. The billions of dollars that have been—and are to be—invested in the grid of the future are creating jobs, safeguarding our energy needs, enhancing energy resilience, catalyzing a much-needed infrastructure buildout, and resulting in almost 60 gigawatts (GW) of newly deployed renewable capacity by the end of 2025, and spurring innovation. And its benefits reach far and wide—82% of funds have flowed to traditionally Republican districts [2].
Repealing the IRA is a way to needlessly increase chaos, shattering the chance for a long-term unified energy policy that prioritizes a sustainable supply of reliable and affordable energy in favor of doubling down on outdated and cost-inefficient fossil fuel technologies. The Senate’s version of the budget reconciliation bill, intended to be more palatable than the initial version passed by the House, still cuts IRA incentives by 90%. The impact of passing the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ will directly hit consumers’ wallets in both the near and long-term in the form of higher utility bills. Analyses show electricity rates rising 5%–7% by 2030 (adding $75–$100/year) and 6%–10% by 2035 (adding $100–$150/year) if a repeal occurs.[3] Translating the loss of tax credits to real per project cost terms, one estimate from Coho’s Market Pulse suggests that Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) prices could be elevated by as much as 45%. High prices and a lack of tax credits would likely reduce the amount of clean energy that would have been deployed under the IRA by 72% in the next decade.
Summary of Clean Energy Impacts from the Senate’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”
| Category | Senate Bill Action |
| Wind & solar credits | Phased out by 2028. 60% in 2026 & 20% in 2027. Project must take service to receive tax credit. Transferability maintained. |
| Geothermal, nuclear, hydro | Extended through 2033; phased out by 2036 |
| Residential/efficiency credits | Eliminated 90–180 days after bill enactment. |
| EV credits | Fully repealed shortly after bill enactment. |
| FEOC restrictions | Foreign Entity of Concern. Anything purchased from an FEOC is not eligible for tax credits. Expanded for six IRA credits, likely to substantially reduce energy storage deployments. |
| DOE Loan Programs Office (LPO) | Mandate repealed by pulling administrative funds ($5 billion cost to distribute $250 billion). New clean energy financing authority created to re-invest in legacy infrastructure with 0.2% of the original LPO budget. |
Targeting the LPO is especially misguided—it guts a proven program just as the LPO scales to deploy IRA funds. In addition to repealing administrative funding required to run the office, the bill also cancels the LPO’s ability to issue clean energy loans through the Federal Finance Bank (FFB). The FFB is a government corporation housed under the Department of the Treasury (DOT) with the power to issue capital with loans financed at treasury rates. The low cost of capital normally only available to government entities enables a high project success rate. In fact, the DOE’s clean energy loan portfolio outperforms venture capital-backed companies by a wide margin and holds up well compared to traditional bank loans [4]. Albeit mostly from the pre-IRA period, 97-99% of DOE LPO projects [5] financed by the FFB are successfully operating.
Defunding the LPO and slashing critical tax credits are powerful tools for undoing the progress driven by the IRA. Rolling back these policies risks reversing economic and environmental gains, leading to higher costs for taxpayers and increased climate vulnerability. The levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of renewables, especially solar, along with the long project development timelines has largely made deploying new fossil fuel plants financially untenable (See the image below) [6]. Doubling down on fossil fuel infrastructure would not only reverse technological and environmental progress, it is economically infeasible.
Renewable energy sources consistently offer the lowest LCOE, remaining far more affordable than fossil fuel-based generation. Renewables are also dropping in cost faster than fossil fuels, making them the most economically viable path forward.
The CEO of American Clean Power, argues, “Absent reasonable timelines for businesses to adjust… good-paying jobs, technology innovation, and AI data centers will be driven overseas,” [7] while the CEO of Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) cautioned that jobs will be lost in every state if the bill is passed [8]. In other words, an IRA repeal would threaten jobs and innovation from coast to coast.
Tariffs—and now the One Big Beautiful Bill—have acted like a Chaos Monkey, threatening the very foundations of our clean-energy economy. Yet progress remains strong: in 2024, renewables supplied over 90% of new grid capacity, and they’re on track to lead again this year [9]. Still, tariff hikes and looming Senate budget reconciliation language continue to erect barriers to project development, rather than dismantling them.
The Chaos Monkey won’t stop our clean-energy future—but it injects costly uncertainty, stalls small business growth, and risks missing our climate goals. Stakeholders must unite to educate lawmakers and block these harmful policies. Anyone with a vested interest in the energy industry and a sustainable society needs to push back against the Chaos Monkey in all forms. That starts by doing everything possible to educate our lawmakers and combat the unconscionable policy actions retained in the Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill.
[1] https://e2.org/releases/april-2025-clean-economy-works/
[2] Ibid.
[4] LPO loans are often for first-of-a-kind renewable projects, leading to technological/commercial risks.
[5] Three LPO programs have been in place for more than a decade prior to the IRA or Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act (IIJA).
[6] Image from June 25 Edition of Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy+ Report (Volume 18) https://www.lazard.com/media/uounhon4/lazards-lcoeplus-june-2025.pdf
[9] Data come from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) https://electrek.co/2025/02/07/renewables-90-percent-new-us-capacity-2024-ferc/
