Tesla CEO Elon Musk opened a new barrage of attacks against Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy bill, calling it a major setback for renewable energy in the U.S. as the legislation inches ahead in the Senate.
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“A massive strategic error is being made right now to damage solar/battery that will leave America extremely vulnerable in the future,” Musk posted Sunday on X, the social media site he owns.
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A day earlier, he used even harsher language to assail the legislation carrying most of the GOP’s domestic agenda. “The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!” Musk wrote Saturday on X.
“Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future,” he continued. The Tesla chief later pinned the post to the top of his X account.
Musk’s opposition to President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is flaring anew. The legislation sparked an epic feud earlier this month between Trump and Musk, the world’s richest man, all but ending a bond that led to mass firings across the U.S. government through Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The pair then spent a day flinging personal attacks and criticisms at each other on social media. At one point, Musk called the bill “a disgusting abomination” for its multi-trillion dollar price tag.
The GOP legislation would renew expiring tax cuts and eliminate taxes on tips and overtime pay. It would also boost spending on defense and immigration enforcement. It is partly paid for by slashing safety net programs like Medicaid and green energy tax credits.
The bill’s treatment of clean energy programs is the magnet attracting Musk’s criticism. A newer version of the bill released early Saturday would gut incentives for solar and wind projects and impose a new tax on existing wind and solar farms if they rely on foreign materials. It aligns closer to the original House GOP version which was more drastic and punitive towards the renewable energy sector.
“They’re proposing an outright massacre with punishing new taxes on these industries,” Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a Saturday statement. Some industry observers had hoped the Senate would temper the House GOP’s fervor against renewables. The bill might still change at the 11th hour to sway Republican holdouts in the Senate and House as it nears final passage in the upper chamber.
Some business groups criticized the late revisions as well, arguing it would spike electricity prices. “Taxing energy production is never good policy, whether oil & gas or, in this case, renewables,” Neal Bradley, chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said on X. “Electricity demand is set to see enormous growth & this tax will increase prices. It should be removed.”
Senate Republicans are in the middle of muscling through their bill over united Democratic opposition. On Saturday, the legislation cleared a key test vote that ended with only two GOP defections: Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
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Joseph Zeballos-Roig