Tax credits with a scalpel—how to boost American energy without killing innovation
By: Senator John Curtis (R-UT)
Deseret News
June 4, 2025
Just days after I was sworn into Congress in 2017, I found myself in the thick of negotiations over the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Republicans passed the bill within a month, and I returned to Utah eager to tell small-business owners and manufacturers about the historic tax relief they could expect.
As I shared the news, business leaders politely nodded, then said, “Thanks. But if you really want to help us grow, cut the red tape and the uncertainty that goes with it.”
Solving a problem is great. Solving the right problem is better. That lesson has stuck with me. As the U.S. Senate begins its swing at reconciliation, I am determined to apply this principle — solving the right problem in the right way. Leadership expert Margaret Wheatley cautioned, “We experience problem-solving sessions as war zones, we view competing ideas as enemies, and we use problems as weapons to blame and defeat opposition forces. No wonder we can’t come up with real lasting solutions!”
Specifically, the Senate must solve the right problem relating to American energy. The right policy solution must navigate tax credits and regulatory reform in what I believe is central to America’s economic future, the planet and our national security: energy.
I am convinced the next great opportunity for economic growth — and energy dominance — won’t come solely from government programs. For example, we likely wouldn’t have had the fracking revolution without federal research at the Department of Energy. That said, we can’t rely only on government intervention. When government acts, it must be fiscally responsible and targeted. This problem requires the government to support the private sector in its leadership, not the other way around.
Some conservatives understandably want to end the energy tax credits created by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and frankly, I agree with them on many provisions that included frivolous spending. We weren’t included in its drafting and didn’t vote for it. But we must be wise — we simply cannot afford to treat good policy ideas as guilty by political association. That would be a quest for political power over intelligence and strategy.
The simple truth is this: many of these credits are Republican policies that we fought to protect. They support strategic energy assets and a robust domestic economy. That’s why businesses from across the energy spectrum — oil and gas, nuclear, renewables — have already made billions in long-term investments based on these policies.
We must build a thoughtful, principled bill that doesn’t pull the rug out from under American innovators. Doing otherwise risks freezing investment, delaying domestic production, increasing costs, and forfeiting our energy edge and national security to China and Russia.
We can — and must — evaluate each tax credit on its merits. Some deserve to be wound down. Others should stay, at least for now, if they advance American energy independence and national security. In reconciliation, we should fight for a thoughtful approach or, in the words of Speaker Johnson, “use a scalpel and not a sledgehammer.”
Over the years, I’ve spoken with energy innovators across Utah and the nation. From the Uintah Basin to Beaver’s geothermal fields, I’ve seen cutting-edge facilities building the future of power. Their consistent ask isn’t subsidies — it’s predictability and deregulation.
Many of them compete with foreign producers who pollute more and comply less. Russian natural gas is 40% dirtier than American-produced gas. When we saddle our own production with a regulatory millstone and unnecessary uncertainty, we don’t help the climate. Nor are we being careful stewards of the environment. By default, we outsource emissions, undermine our economy and provide resources to our enemies.
Deregulation doesn’t mean eliminating guardrails. It means designing rules that are transparent, consistent and don’t take five years and three lawsuits to get a permit.
During the oil embargo of the 1970s, Americans learned a hard truth: we must never depend on adversaries for our energy. Gas lines and rationing are the result of bad policy or simply not solving the right problem. That lesson shaped a generation.
Decades later, we watched as European leaders scrambled when Russia invaded Ukraine — only to discover that they were energy-dependent on their enemy. The U.S. must never be in that position. In fact, we should aim higher. We shouldn’t just be energy independent — we should be energy dominant.
President Trump understands this. His energy agenda is not about ideology — it’s about prosperity, security and leverage. The Senate must now amend the House legislation that supports that agenda in both word and substance. To meet President Trump’s goals, we must bring every energy source to the table as part of the solution. If we prematurely cut any one of them off — or do so without a reasonable, responsible offramp — we don’t just risk falling short of our energy targets; we put our economy and national security in jeopardy.
Let’s be honest with the American people. Some credits in the IRA should end. Others support strategic advantages. And across the board, what will truly unleash energy production isn’t a new spending or deduction line — it’s liberating American ingenuity from the shackles of Washington bureaucracy and unnecessary regulation. Perhaps most important, Congress needs to get to work on substantive permitting reform and fix the bureaucracy that is preventing all forms of energy from being deployed.
It’s time for Congress to act — not by reflexively tearing down or playing political power games, but by building smarter. Intelligently solving the right problems by delivering a structured offramp to tax credits and common-sense deregulation will unleash American energy — and produce economic prosperity, a healthier planet and true national security.
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