Since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA, P.L. 117-169) in 2022, more than 400,000 clean energy jobs have been created with over $422 billion in investments announced in 48 states and jurisdictions, including Puerto Rico. Despite the IRA’s growing the economy, giving people jobs, and curbing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the Trump administration and members of Congress have threatened to repeal the legislation to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.
Repealing these tax credits will raise bills for families and eliminate hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs. Research shows that a repeal of the IRA could cost America nearly 790,000 jobs by 2035 and increase household electricity bills by around 10 percent on average. 34.4% of Americans already make sacrifices to pay their electricity bills.
This repeal is particularly concerning for people of faith, as faith communities around the country have used IRA tax credits to install clean energy projects or increase their building’s energy efficiency. Notably, the IRA allows for certain tax-exempt entities like houses of worship to receive rebates, or “direct pay,” for clean energy investments.” This provision has allowed Meetings in our own Quaker network to save money and redirect these resources to serve their communities, both materially and spiritually.
Providence Monthly Meeting: Bearing Witness to Sustainability
Friends at Providence Monthly Meeting in Media, Pennsylvania used the clean energy tax credits from the IRA to reduce the meeting’s carbon footprint. Since 2021, Providence Monthly Meeting has been discerning efforts to bear witness to their values of sustainability and stewardship.
The IRA rebate was the deciding factor that led the meeting to install solar panels. After consultations with Friends, neighbors, vendors, and the electricity provider, Providence Monthly Meeting installed a ground mounted solar array in the summer of 2023.
While pursuing their rebate, the Meeting faced challenges from a slow-moving IRS. Finally, in December 2024, Providence Friends Meeting received a 40% rebate through the IRA’s direct pay provision.
While speaking with Bob Redfern, who was part of the process for the Meeting, he underscored that they would not have undertaken this project without the IRA and the rebate. With this solar array, the meeting anticipates saving a substantial amount on their electricity bills.
Wrightstown Friends Meeting: Serving their community
Wrightstown Friends Meeting in Bucks County, Pennsylvania has been dedicated to environmental stewardship and care for creation for many years. After learning about the IRA rebate in late 2023, the Meeting decided to install a solar array and geothermal heat pump, both of which qualify for the 30% subsidy. Both the rebate and the estimated savings of these sustainable energy systems motivated the Meeting to make this decision, enabling them to continue running a nursery school and social hall in their community.
FCNL spoke with the clerk of the Wrightstown Friends Meeting, Jeffrey Cogshall, who shared that the Meeting is still in the process of filing for the rebate but has followed the required steps to ensure eligibility. Because Congress is threatening to repeal the IRA clean energy tax credits, the Meeting fears their ability to get the rebate, which they estimate as just under $44,000.
Oppose the Repeal of the IRA Clean Energy Tax Credits
As Providence and Wrightstown Friends Meetings demonstrate, the clean energy tax credits are a critical way in which Friends and other houses of worship around the nation are prophetically bearing witness to confronting the climate challenge. As our Friends at Philadelphia Yearly Meeting spoke prophetically in 1998, “[t]he world is God’s creation. How we treat the Earth and all its creatures is basic to our relationship with God, and of fundamental religious concern to the Society of Friends.”
FCNL is committed to advocating for the protection of these credits as part our own respect for God’s creation. You can act and urge your members of Congress to protect clean energy investments.
