President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending bill boosts fossil fuel production, and eliminates investments in clean energy, including tax credits for residential rooftop solar, one of the sector’s core economic drivers. (Adobe Stock)
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Aug 17, 2025
By Eric Galatas
Some U.S. military veterans are urging President Donald Trump to restore clean-energy investments that were rolled back under the GOP’s signature tax and spending law.
Former Nevada state senator and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Pat Spearman said energy security is national security.
And she said the new law, which also cuts social safety net programs, will not make Nevada’s sons and daughters serving in the armed forces any safer.
Spearman noted that the United States spends $81 billion a year protecting oil supplies across the globe.
“There’s an extreme absurdity for spending that much money on fossil fuels,” said Spearman, “while simultaneously cutting programs that provide food for children and families, cutting Medicaid for our most vulnerable citizens.”
Demand for energy to fuel artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and other users is on the rise, but H.R. 1 rolls back investments to ramp up wind and solar capacity and upgrade power grids under the Inflation Reduction Act.
The new law also opens up more public lands for oil and gas extraction, a move the Trump administration claims will boost energy independence and lower utility bills.
More than 41,000 Nevada families benefited from more than $151 million in IRA tax credits to reduce clean energy costs and increase efficiency in 2023, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Spearman said cuts to the Solar for All program, designed to help families who otherwise couldn’t afford the up-front costs of installation, continues an historic cycle of underinvestment in communities of color.
“The latest to be under the ax is a program for low-income and disadvantaged communities,” said Spearman, “often redlined by systemic racism.”
The Trump administration’s shift away from clean energy is expected to make it far less likely that the U.S. will meet a 2030 deadline to cut fossil fuel pollution in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Spearman said America has the means to create more clean energy, but it will require courage, unflinching advocacy and determination.
“God bless us, and have mercy on all of us if we do not decide to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel consumption,” said Spearman, “because there is a fierce urgency of now.”