Local grassroots group Leelanau Energy has issued a warning about the potentially dark future for renewable energy and other green initiatives in the United States, following last week’s Congressional passage of a new national budget.

In a newsletter sent to subscribers on Wednesday, Leelanau Energy wrote that, “with the passage and signing of the ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ it appears the future for clean energy in America, and any potential for ongoing U.S. leadership in this sector, has been severely damaged.”

Among other sweeping budget cuts and changes, the so-called Big Beautiful Bill will “significantly impact the future of the renewable energy tax credits enacted by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA),” according to a press alert from energy-focused law firm Pillsbury. Perhaps most notably in the energy space, the new budget slashes clean energy tax credits for wind and solar projects, effectively eliminating incentives for any wind or solar projects placed into service after 2027.

Leelanau Energy suggested in its newsletter that the “disastrous” new bill, in effectively killing wind and solar projects nationwide, would stymy hundreds of billions of dollars of already-in-progress renewable energy projects, exacerbate climate change risks, eliminate jobs, and leave the country in a tenuous position as energy demands climb.

“Fact: Electricity demand in the United States is rising faster than it has in at least two decades,” Leelanau Energy wrote in the email. “Failure to meet this rising demand with adequate supply results in higher prices. From 2000 to 2022, U.S. electricity prices rose by an average of about 2.8 percent a year; since 2022, they have risen by 13 percent annually. Of all the elements of the legislation, perhaps none is as obviously self-defeating as getting rid of tax credits for clean energy. That decision will not simply set back the fight against climate change. Congress could also be setting America up for the worst energy-affordability crisis since the 1970s. Unlike then, this time we’ll have imposed it on ourselves.”

Citing information from the federal Energy Information Administration, Leelanau Energy reported that 93 percent of the electricity capacity slated to come online in the U.S. this year is “a combination of wind, solar, and battery storage.”

Founded in 2008, Leelanau Energy is a registered nonprofit organization with a mission “to transform the Leelanau peninsula into a community 100% powered by clean, renewable energy.” The organization previously headed up an Energy Futures Task Force for the county government, seeking to “identify opportunities and facilitate implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy in Leelanau County.” The county’s new Board of Commissioners voted to dissolve that task force at their first meeting in January of this year.