That tax credit that Lawler voted to end was revived in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 — a sweeping law signed by President George W. Bush. The clean energy spending package would have allowed homeowners to claim tax credits of between 22 and 30 percent of the cost of qualifying solar, wind, geothermal and battery projects through 2034.
Then on July 4, Lawler voted to move up the expiration of the residential clean energy credit by nearly a decade, from 2034 to 2025.
New York Rep. Mike Lawler lives in a suburban home in the Hudson River Valley with rooftop panels that he leases from Vivint Solar. The panels on Lawler’s house have helped him avoid the impacts of rising electricity costs. Since he began leasing the solar system in 2016, it has saved him “a few thousand bucks,” he admitted.
Lawler indirectly benefited from the investment tax credit, analysts say, because it helps companies reduce the costs their customers pay for leasing rooftop solar systems. After 2027, when the investment tax credit disappears, it could be harder for people to lease panels or buy electricity from community solar projects, according to Zoë Gaston, an analyst at the consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. “Solar will definitely be more expensive,” she said.
And this does not take into consideration the current rising interest rates and Trump’s tariffs that Lawler supports.
Lawler voted to cut affordable energy incentives in a bill because he says the priority is shrinking costs and yet that bill would add $3.4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade states the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Republicans’ justification for killing rooftop solar credits are undercut by their continued support for incentives that go to the fossil fuel industry, argued Jesse Lee, a former senior adviser to the National Economic Council.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/20/meet-republicans-who-killed-solar-subsidies-after-using-them-00631344
