One Big Beautiful loss for renewable energy
In an editorial for the Globe, Mount Holyoke College Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics Robert Darrow said the bill prioritizes fossil fuel interests over climate action, making it nearly impossible for the U.S. to meet critical climate milestones.
The recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill is a major setback for U.S. climate and clean energy goals, says Robert Darrow, visiting assistant professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College.
In an editorial for the Boston Globe, Darrow explained that the legislation eliminates electric vehicle tax credits, with the $7,500 incentive ending by September 2025, which is expected to sharply reduce consumer demand for electric vehicles and undermine investments by automakers, such as Ford, General Motors and Tesla, in their electric lineups. Elon Musk’s public disappointment and Tesla’s declining stock are cited as early consequences.
The bill also prolongs coal usage, “which will produce more planet-warming emissions and all but guarantee the United States will renege on its 2030 and 2035 climate promises,” Darrow wrote. “It opens millions of acres of public lands and the Gulf of Mexico to new mining and drilling and lowers the compensation that will flow back to public coffers.”
Darrow argued that, ultimately, the bill prioritizes short-term fossil fuel interests over long-term climate action, making it nearly impossible for the United States to meet critical climate milestones. He warned that the rollback of clean energy incentives in favor of expanded drilling and coal use risks both the environment and the economic promise of a renewable energy future.
“The next climate heroes will be ordinary citizens,” he predicted. “The Trump team is dashing hopes for a federally led remedy to the climate crisis. America is falling behind; time is running out. But the contest isn’t over, and it isn’t a spectator sport.”
