This month, Senate Republicans had an opportunity to improve the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” (aka Big Ugly Bill) passed by House Republicans, but they failed. Instead of prioritizing their own constituents, Senate Republicans released a bill that, just like the House version, eliminates the clean energy investments that are lowering energy costs for everyday people and creating good paying, union jobs.

While some of the words in the Senate Finance Committee title have changed from the House version, the impact remains the same. This bill would destroy the future of clean energy in this country, increase energy costs, slash hundreds of thousands of good jobs, sell off our public lands, weaken environmental and public health protections, and put polluters above the law, all to give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in this country. With this bill, billionaires and big polluters win, and everyone else will suffer.

The “Big Beautiful Bill” Will:

Eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs and increase energy costs

Thanks to provisions to cut clean energy tax credits, hundreds of thousands of workers in the clean energy sector would lose their jobs if this bill becomes law. Without the tax credits, billions of dollars in private investment in wind and solar projects would disappear overnight, stranding clean energy projects across the country and leaving those working on the projects without a job.

Losing funding for clean energy projects could also force communities to rely on polluting, expensive fossil fuels to meet their energy needs and face electricity reliability problems like brown-outs and blackouts. This would further increase already oppressively high energy costs nationwide. Under this bill, ratepayers could expect their energy bills to go up $110 by next year, and over $400 per year in the next five. 

Sell off our public lands

Senate Republican leadership is trying to sell off millions acres of treasured public lands across the West, even though it is against the rules of the Senate, in order to pay for tax breaks for billionaires. If the bill becomes law, popular recreational areas, critical wildlife habitat, and areas with immense cultural or historical significance could be privatized and even opened up to environmentally devastating oil and gas development.

Weaken environmental and public health protections

With this bill, Republicans plan to eliminate programs that are cleaning up air pollution in our schools and from dirty trucks, buses, and pipelines in our communities. At the same time, they want to cut funding that allows communities to track harmful pollution. Eliminating these programs would increase toxic air pollution that causes asthma, heart conditions, cancer, and premature death. Meanwhile, they want to cut funding for Medicaid, leaving millions of people, particularly in low-wealth communities and communities of color, without access to healthcare to treat these life-threatening conditions.

Put polluters above the law

This bill isn’t just attempting to weaken protections against pollution, it also floats allowing polluters to buy their way out of considering community safety and input when building polluting projects.

Among proposals being considered, wealthy developers could pay to bypass our most fundamental public health and environmental protections and avoid judicial review entirely. This could allow Big Oil CEOs to jam through massive polluting projects while sidestepping environmental review, community input, and judicial oversight, processes which are crucial to protecting the environment and health of nearby communities. It also means that no matter how harmful the project, impacted communities can’t challenge them in court. The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that these provisions do not belong in a reconciliation bill (and we would add, ANY bill), but it remains to be seen whether Republicans will comply with the ruling.

What’s the status of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” and how can I help stop it?

There are still a few key moments where we can fight this bill:

1. Senate Republicans want to vote on their Big Ugly Bill by July 4th.
2. After the Senate vote, the bill goes back to the House for a vote to approve the Senate’s changes.
3. Once both chambers agree on the same bill text, it is sent to the president’s desk to sign into law.

That means there is still time to stop this monstrosity of a bill. LCV and our partners in this fight are working every day to urge legislators to vote NO on this bill that would drive up energy costs, open our treasured public lands to oil and gas development, eliminate thousands of good paying jobs, and hamstring American manufacturing. Here are three ways you can get involved in helping stop this disastrous bill right now.

1. Call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to vote NO on Republicans’ harmful reconciliation bill that would destroy our clean energy future.
2. Learn how you can protect our environment and democracy in your own state. Look up your LCV state affiliate at org/states.
3. Take an online action telling your Senators to protect clean energy and public lands.