The Big Beautiful Bill replaces slogans with substance. It ends wasteful subsidies, enforces ethical sourcing, and restores the market’s role in determining which energy technologies succeed.
This July, America did more than light fireworks — it declared freedom from the trillion-dollar green subsidy machine. With President Trump signing the Big Beautiful Bill into law on July 4th, we’re finally seeing the end of unchecked climate cronyism. This legislation marks a critical shift away from the runaway spending and international dependence baked into the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Originally sold as a way to reduce inflation, the IRA quietly became a climate slush fund. Its energy section, initially projected at $391 billion, has since ballooned to nearly $1.2 trillion, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO,) Penn-Wharton, and CRFB. And the spending isn’t capped — it expands as more companies claim tax credits.
But here’s the real kicker: Much of that “green investment” winds up overseas. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that Chinese-controlled firms produce over 80% of the world’s solar panels and EV batteries. So while American taxpayers were promised clean energy and lower emissions, what they got was a massive cash transfer to Beijing, all while prices for steel, copper, and concrete shot up here at home.
Far from lowering costs, these subsidies have fueled inflation. According to the Manhattan Institute, federal handouts drive demand for materials and grid infrastructure, pushing up prices for construction and energy.
Worse, a 2024 GAO audit revealed that the Treasury Department has been relying on industry “self-certification” with minimal oversight and auditing. That’s like asking students to grade their final exams — and accepting whatever they say. Actual environmental progress requires capped, transparent, technology-neutral incentives reviewed in daylight, not blank checks funneled through lobbyists.
Before the IRA, green companies already received between $8 billion and $10 billion in federal subsidies annually. But with the IRA’s uncapped credits, the Cato Institute warned that taxpayer exposure could rise to $4.7 trillion if every eligible project lines up at the Treasury’s door.
And what did we get in return? Instead of strengthening the grid, these politicized giveaways destabilized it. The Institute for Energy Research reports that production credits drive wind and solar plants to bid for negative prices, crowding out dependable base load generators and eroding resilience. Subsidies also deter private investment in technologies that can compete without federal support, raising long-term costs for consumers. Markets disciplined Exxon and Chevron; green startups deserve the same reality check.
There’s a moral cost, too. The US Department of Labor reports that nearly half the world’s solar-grade polysilicon comes from China’s Xinjiang region, where Uyghur Muslims are subject to forced labor. A Washington Post investigation traced cobalt dug by Congolese children into batteries powering today’s electric vehicles. In the exposé, “Sins of a Solar Empire” dossier, dozens of Chinese manufacturers are named whose products reach American rooftops and utility arrays. These abuses are well-documented, yet they continue to be subsidized. That changes under the Big Beautiful Bill, which makes domestic-content standards mandatory for any tax credits—no more taxpayer money for companies tied to forced labor or regimes hostile to the United States.
While politicians brag about falling territorial emissions, our appetite for imported panels and batteries shifts pollution, rather than eliminating it. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) modelling shows that, without border adjustments, climate rules trigger significant carbon leakage, relocating emissions to jurisdictions with weaker standards rather than reducing them globally. Meanwhile, China controls 70-90% of the lithium-ion battery market, its dominance built on more than $230 billion in state aid. If the smoke rises in Inner Mongolia instead of Indiana, the planet still warms.
The “Big Beautiful Bill,” passed on Independence Day, trades hollow grandstanding for hard-nosed accountability by: (1) halting the creation of any fresh clean-energy tax credits while phasing out existing ones on a clear, time-bound schedule—putting an end to bottomless subsidies; (2) making every remaining incentive contingent on rock-solid domestic-content standards, so components tied to forced labor can’t slip through the cracks; and (3) diverting the money saved into technology-neutral research competitions—funding advanced nuclear, hydrogen, and next-generation geothermal projects chosen by open bids rather than lobbyist influence.
The Big Beautiful Bill replaces slogans with substance. It ends wasteful subsidies, enforces ethical sourcing, and restores the market’s role in determining which energy technologies succeed. In doing so, it turns “Buy American” from a political soundbite into enforceable law, while cutting off taxpayer support for foreign supply chains riddled with abuse.
The green gift is over. And not a moment too soon.
Melanie Collette is a Policy Analyst at the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT).