To a US Senator: defend the IRA clean energy tax credits

The most effective letters on this issue connect the IRA credits to specific investments and jobs in your state or district. If you live near an IRA-funded facility — solar manufacturing, EV battery production, semiconductor fabs, transmission projects — name it. The political environment for defending the credits is strongest among representatives whose constituents see the jobs.

Dear Senator [Last Name],

I’m writing as a constituent in [city/town] to ask you to defend the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits against the repeated efforts to repeal or weaken them.

The IRA’s clean energy provisions are the largest US climate investment ever enacted. They have driven hundreds of billions in private investment in clean energy manufacturing and deployment across the United States, with substantial concentration in red and purple states (Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, others).

[Personalize: name specific IRA-funded investments in your state or district. Examples: “The [specific facility] in [city/town] is creating [number] jobs and represents [investment amount] in capital investment that the IRA credits made possible.” If you don’t have specific local knowledge, you can substitute: “I’ve watched the IRA produce real economic activity in our state — [type of project] in [region] is a concrete example.”]

The credits have been targeted for repeal or weakening at every legislative opportunity since their enactment. Tax-extender packages, debt-ceiling deals, end-of-year omnibus bills, and reconciliation vehicles have all been used as potential vehicles for clawbacks. The political pressure has been donor-driven and well-funded.

I’m asking you to:

1. Defend the credits in any reconciliation or tax-extender vehicle that comes before the Senate.
2. Resist proposals to narrow eligibility in ways that would defund clean energy projects already underway.
3. Support full implementation of the credits as Congress originally enacted them, including the labor-standards and domestic-content conditions that were carefully negotiated.
4. Push back against rhetoric framing IRA implementation as wasteful — the empirical record on private investment, jobs, and emissions reduction is increasingly strong.

The economic case for the credits is now visible in many congressional districts as actual factories, jobs, and tax revenue. The principled case is environmental. Both point in the same direction.

I’d appreciate knowing your position on IRA defense and any specific provisions you see as priority targets.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

[Your name] [Your address]