{"id":39122,"date":"2025-08-22T21:44:31","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T02:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/clean-energy-projects-on-tribal-lands-were-booming-then-came-trumps-tax-bill\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T21:44:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T02:44:35","slug":"clean-energy-projects-on-tribal-lands-were-booming-then-came-trumps-tax-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/clean-energy-projects-on-tribal-lands-were-booming-then-came-trumps-tax-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Clean energy projects on tribal lands were booming. Then came Trump\u2019s tax bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A boy starts the generator behind his home on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona on May 8, 2019. Jake Bacon \/ AP Photo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

(Update: President Trump signed the domestic policy and tax bill into law on Friday, July 4.)<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s sweeping tax bill is on its way to his desk for a signature after House Republicans passed the legislation with a vote of 218-214 on Thursday. As the administration celebrates, many Americans are contemplating its effects closer to home. With deep cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, and renewable energy projects, the bill is likely to have a devastating effect on low-income and rural communities across the country.<\/p>\n

But while Republican governors in states that rely on those programs have largely remained silent about the bill\u2019s effects, tribal leaders across the country are not mincing words about the upcoming fallout for their communities.\u201cThese bills are an affront to our sovereignty, our lands, and our way of life. They would gut essential health and food security programs, roll back climate resilience funding, and allow the exploitation of our sacred homelands without even basic tribal consultation,\u201d said Chalyee \u00c9esh Richard Peterson, president of the Tlingit and Haida in Alaska, in a statement. \u201cThis is not just bad policy \u2014 it is a betrayal of the federal trust responsibility to tribal nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tribes across the country are particularly worried about the megabill\u2019s hit to clean energy, complicating the development of critical wind and solar projects. According to the Department of Energy, tribal households face 6.5 times more electrical outages per year and a 28 percent higher energy burden compared to the average U.S. household. An estimated 54,000 people living on tribal lands have no electricity.<\/p>\n

Under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, the Biden administration opened up new federal funding opportunities, increased the loan authority of the Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program, and created new tax credits for wind energy, battery storage, large-scale solar farms, and programs to repurpose lands harmed by environmental degradation for related energy projects. When signed into law, Trump\u2019s new bill will largely dismantle these programs.<\/p>\n

Historically, tribes have had limited access to capital to fund clean energy projects. Through the IRA, new projects were driven by tribes to address community and infrastructure needs on their terms. According to tribes and energy advocacy groups, these projects not only help build energy infrastructure for each tribal nation but also create jobs, boost local economies, and affirm sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Crystal Miller, a member of the Walker River Paiute Tribe, heads government affairs and policy at the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy, underlined the existential outcomes for tribal communities. \u201cIt is extremely life or death if you\u2019re talking about clean energy projects, in particular solar, which provide energy to homes, provide heat to homes that wouldn\u2019t have it without because they don\u2019t have lines run to their community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Prior to the House vote, the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy was part of a broader group that sent letters to Congress warning of the bill\u2019s consequences for tribes, treaties, and domestic energy priorities. These \u201care not only economic but also environmental and humanitarian,\u201d they wrote after the Senate narrowly approved the bill 51-50 earlier this week, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.<\/p>\n

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Miller pointed out that tribes weren\u2019t consulted on the terms of the bill headed to Trump\u2019s desk, yet they will be forced to live with the consequences. Tribal leaders across the United States warned the legislation could jeopardize projects critical to their communities\u2019 energy needs: A tribal village in Alaska\u2019s attempt to curb high electricity costs by establishing a tribal utility; the Cheyenne River Sioux\u2019s efforts to navigate long, harsh winters in South Dakota; and California tribes\u2019 development of microgrids to offset power outages due to wildfires. The Hopi Tribe in Arizona said the sovereign nation\u2019s microgrid would fail after a historic transition from coal.<\/p>\n

Tribal leaders also warned there could be widespread job losses across the 574 federally recognized tribal nations, an outcome at odds with Trump\u2019s economic promises. \u201cWhen we talk about bringing jobs back to America and keeping them here domestically, that also includes tribal nations,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Kimberly Yazzie, a Din\u00e9 professor at the University of British Columbia whose previous research focused on tribal clean energy development, called the legislation a big setback \u2014 though not entirely unexpected. \u201cTribes have been presented with challenges in the past hundred years and this is a challenge we\u2019ll have to face,\u201d she said. \u201cIt will come down to the tribal, entity, and individual level, and how they want to best move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Clean energy projects on tribal lands were booming. Then came Trump\u2019s tax bill<\/a> first appeared on Native Sun News Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A boy starts the generator behind his home on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona on May 8, 2019. Jake Bacon \/ AP Photo (Update: President Trump signed the domestic policy and tax bill into law on Friday, July 4.) President Donald Trump\u2019s sweeping tax bill is on its way to <\/p>\n

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Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> August 22, 2025<\/p>\n

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