Bruce Steinhagen is proud of his new solar panels at his home in Algoma, Wisconsin. The system can produce about as much energy as Bruce needs to power his entire home. A recent electric bill was only $2. For Bruce and his family, this is a step toward energy independence.
And as more Americans like Bruce embrace clean energy, it’s clear that our collective vision of “American energy independence” needs to evolve.
Too often, the term is hijacked to justify policies that support an unsustainable reliance on fossil fuels. In a state like Wisconsin, with no oil or gas reserves but abundant sun and wind, Bruce’s solution makes sense.
“It’s not about politics,” he says. “It’s about being practical.”
A tax credit extended by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) helped Bruce pay for his new solar energy system, and he’s not alone.
An estimated 90,000 Wisconsinites are installing solar with help from the IRA. But consumer benefits are just the tip of the iceberg.
At the heart of the IRA are significant incentives for American businesses to manufacture components for solar panels, electric vehicles and other products like batteries. The IRA has already sparked $920 million of private investment in Wisconsin’s clean energy economy, and although our state still spends $14 billion every year to import fossil fuels, the federal law offers a very real path to keep more of that money in Wisconsin.
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We’re closer than ever to energy independence in the U.S.
The truth is, we are closer than ever to energy independence. With the right policies, we can meet our energy needs locally and finally stop relying on volatile global markets to power our lives.
This should be a cause that unites us, but misinformation is dividing us.
Algoma is in Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District, where newly elected Republican Rep. Tony Wied has a very different idea of “energy independence.” In fact, Wied made the concept a cornerstone of his platform, declaring that “we need to unleash American energy by reducing regulation and once again become energy independent, as we were under President Trump.”
In reality, the United States imported an average of 9.3 million barrels of oil per day during Donald Trump’s first term.
Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, who represents Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, has mirrored Trump’s position on the IRA, calling it “anti-American” and supporting the president-elect’s vow to “terminate the green new scam.” But Tiffany’s constituents stand to benefit from the IRA in big ways.
For example, Dairyland Power Cooperative, a large electric cooperative that serves much of his district, is receiving $579 million in funding for clean energy development. The money comes from the Empowering Rural America program, one of many IRA-funded initiatives designed to benefit rural communities.
Over the next decade, this investment is expected to bring down electric rates by 42% for many of Tiffany’s constituents.
Trump has promised to end tax credits for electric vehicles
If Trump makes good on his promise to dismantle these investments, Wisconsin’s communities will be left scrambling to keep up in a global economy that is rapidly shifting toward clean energy.
Although the move may not stop the American clean energy transition entirely, it could slow progress just as technologies like electric vehicles and solar panels become affordable and mainstream.
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Wisconsin just broke ground on a new electric vehicle charging corridor funded by $78 million from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, another bill designed to spur the American clean energy transition.
But now Trump is planning to kill the $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric vehicle purchases.
If the goal is American energy independence, this could not be more counterproductive. True American energy independence means homes powered by locally produced energy, cars charged by clean electricity and a strong American clean energy workforce.
Bruce is right, it’s not about politics, it’s about being practical.
Jacob Ahrens-Balwit is the strategic communications manager for Clean Wisconsin, where he works to build public support for a clean, healthy environment. This column originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
