North San Antonio News

A $2.3 trillion package that includes an omnibus spending bill and COVID-19 relief bill that President Trump signed Sunday night unfairly benefits renewable energy, according to a Texas congressman, despite reports that wind and solar no longer need such subsidies.

The bill, with $1.4 trillion for a wide variety of spending projects and $900 billion targeting pandemic programs, passed Congress on Dec. 21. Trump denounced the bill and declined to sign it for almost a week.

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who voted against both spending bills, said the subsidies and tax credit extensions are a mistake and blatantly unfair.

“This omnibus is another glaring example of Congress picking energy winners and losers,” Roy told North San Antonio News. “We need to end energy favoritism and let technologies compete on reliability and cost. That will yield the best outcomes for consumers and market innovation.”

The bill extends the Production Tax Credit (PTC) through 2022, and the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) through 2023, with offshore wind projects which begin construction before Jan. 1, 2026, receiving a five-year extension as well.

Carbon capture and sequestration projects are protected through 2025 and the commercial building energy efficiency tax deduction, which was to expire at the end of the year, has become permanent and includes an annual cost of living adjustment.

Roy was sharply critical of the bill in a statement released by his office.

“The American people got a very clear glimpse at the total dysfunction and incompetency of the U.S. Congress as it passed a massive lobby-driven 5,600-page spending bill negotiated in back rooms to spend over $2.3 trillion with mere hours to review it,” he said. “Allegedly passed as ‘COVID relief,’ we actually voted on both COVID measures and a massive omnibus spending package — a package that should have been divided into well over 20 bills.”

He said the bill allocates a mountain of spending without a plan to pay for it other than leaving “mountains of additional debt” for future generations.

“Finally, this bill was produced by legislative malpractice," Roy said. "The people’s representatives were locked out of this process. We didn’t get bill text until just before 2 p.m. [Dec. 21]. The bill was almost 5,600 pages long. They didn’t want us to read it. They just wanted us to pass it. Given what is in it, it is easy to see why. This spending measure is nothing short of an embarrassment, and any justification for supporting it by members of Congress or the president requires deceptive contortions of the highest order. It represents everything wrong with Washington and epitomizes the very swamp that the president supposedly ran against.”

Roy said Trump should have vetoed the bill and forced Congress back to the drawing board “to do its job just as the American people do theirs every day.”

Roy was re-elected to a second term to represent the 21st U.S. House District, which covers areas north of San Antonio and much of Austin. He has worked for Rick Perry during his tenure as governor, was chief of staff for Sen. Ted Cruz and served as first assistant attorney general for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Since being elected to Congress in 2018, he has been an advocate for a smarter energy policy that provides affordable power, is readily available and doesn’t cause environmental damage.

“The White House Council of Economic Advisors estimates that increased oil and natural gas production due to the fracking revolution is saving American families a combined $203 billion annually, or around $2,500 per family,” Roy said in a 2020 campaign report on energy.

“Lower-income households spend a larger proportion of their income on energy bills, so expensive energy and utilities would harm these families more than the private jet elitists lecturing them about carbon footprints. We can responsibly address environmental concerns and maintain low energy costs by pursuing a comprehensive policy of energy production that focuses on low cost, abundant, clean energy options — including natural gas, oil, nuclear and renewables.”