Repealing the IRA’s clean energy tax credits would increase energy costs

Passed in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act has “spurred the highest levels of factory construction in American history, with more than 400,000 new jobs announced across the country,” according to Climate Power. Families that have adopted solar as a result of the available credits in the IRA are on average saving more than $2,000 a year on energy costs. Clean energy technologies constituted 93% of new energy generation capacity added to the grid last year alone.  

But despite the act’s success, especially in red states, key components of the IRA including clean energy tax credits face repeal in President Donald Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” 

As The New York Times reported on June 4, “Repealing those credits could increase the average family’s energy bill by as much as $400 per year within a decade, according to several studies published this year,” at a time when electricity prices are already surging. The Times piece noted that one of those studies found that “repealing the clean electricity credits could cause power prices to surge more than 13 percent in states like Arizona, Kansas, New Jersey and North Carolina and lead to thousands of job losses nationwide by 2032.”

Yet for years, Fox News figures have told their audience that implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, which they often incorrectly refer to as the Green New Deal, would raise costs for American consumers, while obsessing about energy costs under the Biden administration.

Right-wing media falsely claimed the Inflation Reduction Act and its supposed Green New Deal policies would raise energy costs for Americans

In the weeks surrounding the IRA’s August 2022 passage, Fox News repeatedly attacked the bill using a variety of disingenuous narratives, including claiming that it would raise energy costs. In the first two years after the act’s passage, the network mentioned the IRA more than twice as much as CNN and 40% more than MSNBC, often referring to the legislation as “the Green New Deal” and “the Green New Scam.”

Here are some examples of Fox News personalities claiming the Inflation Reduction Act or investing in clean energy would hurt Americans:

• Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy said the bill would “make Americans poorer.” “One of the most elitist moments that we actually saw was all of them cheering after they passed this fake Inflation Reduction Act, which was really a Green New Deal,” she said. “They lied to the American people. They cheered after, knowing that that bill was going to make Americans poorer.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 8/16/22] 

• Fox News host Sean Hannity called the IRA an “energy spending spree” to “appease the climate religious cult.” He said: “Now if she [Sen. Kyrsten Sinema) does ultimately cave, the Schumer-Manchin $500 billion Green New Deal energy spending spree that they purposely label as something it's not – the Inflation Reduction Act – will become the law of the land. … Now another $500 billion to appease the climate religious cult that rules the Democratic Party.” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/3/22]

• Fox host Jesse Watters claimed the IRA would “increase your electricity bills.” He said: “Oh, and then they’re going to raise taxes on corporations and then they’re going to tax methane, which is going to increase your electricity bills. None of this is going to stop inflation because it’s not designed to. It’s like a skinny margarita. This is the skinny version of the Green New Deal.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/28/22]

• Former Fox contributor Tammy Bruce, who now serves as the State Department spokesperson, claimed on Hannity that the Inflation Reduction Act has increased energy and gas prices. She said: “They’re admitting that the Inflation Reduction Act was a climate bill. … What we saw was mortgages increasing, rent increasing, food inflation, energy costs — it’s not going to be summer forever; we're heading into winter. The gas prices — the staples that allowed people to live their lives in a manner that they want to, freely have all been chopped off at the knees.”  [Fox News, Hannity, 8/18/23]

• On Fox & Friends, Chuck Devore of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, claimed the IRA would “make electricity more expensive” and “make gasoline more expensive.” “I think you are seeing two things with this constant fearmongering over the climate crisis,” Devore said. “The first thing that you’re seeing is trying to drum up fear to get people to embrace a very unpopular policy, policies that will make electricity more expensive, that will make gasoline more expensive, that will put fuel on Biden’s inflation fire.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/4/23]

• On Jesse Watters Primetime, guest host Rachel Campos-Duffy said then-Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris “cares more about the Green New Scam than your rising energy costs. And that’s why Trump’s resonating.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 8/14/24]

• On The Ingraham Angle, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin claimed that because of the “Green New Deal … people [who] cannot afford to be able to heat their home.” He said: “The death of the Green New Scam is upon us. … I am here to fight for, as part of that Trump Mandate earned November 5, the people across this country who have seen a Green New Deal that if fully implemented would cost tens of trillions of dollars and people who cannot afford to be able to heat their home, to purchase a car, small businesses are struggling to operate, people have been put out of work, and it's going to end.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 3/12/25]