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PALMETTO, Fla. — Some solar businesses in Florida are worried their work will be negatively impacted by the Trump administration’s so-called “big, beautiful bill.”
They say, if passed, along with ongoing tariffs, prices could go up by more than 50 percent.
“We’ve got a lot of a great deal of uncertainty in this line of work,” said Steven Rutherford, president and CEO of Tampa Bay Solar. “So, we’re working on executing what we have and then cautiously wondering what’s going to happen in the next month.”
According to Rutherford, he has been paying close attention to the budgetary bill, and he says it would eliminate tax credits for people who choose solar.
“In its current form,” he said, “it actually takes out the solar tax credit that was due to sunset in 2034.”
Instead, he says, those credits would go away this year.
On top of that, Rutherford says he is dealing with tariffs causing price increases so losing the tax credit and 30 percent tariffs would lead to 60% to 70% price hikes.
“A lot of folks can handle a 5% or 10% increase in cost, but something as drastic as the way it’s currently written, will definitely have an impact,” Rutherford said.
For places like the Manatee School for the Arts, they say tax credits give them the ability to go solar.
“We as an organization or a business in general could not afford to do this otherwise,” said Timothy McMurray, Vice President of Finance for the Manatee School for the Arts.
According to McMurray, he’s worried about the current legislation as it’s written, as well as tariffs, because the school doesn’t plan to stop with this project.
“We’re still growing,” he said. “Currently, we’re planning another 80,000ft² of growth. We’re looking for, a phase two solar project to help us manage that going forward, to maintain our costs go down. If this legislation goes forward, we can’t afford it.”
But Rutherford and his employees are being proactive.
He says they’ve reached out to representatives, and he’s even going up to Washington next week to participate in a demonstration with the Solar Energy Industry Association.
He says, if nothing changes, he’ll have to do a major company restructuring.
“We’re going to see a dramatic loss in employment,” said Rutherford.
Which he hopes won’t happen anytime soon.
President Trump campaigned on a promise to repeal the clean energy tax credits established in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
He says they are expensive, unnecessary and harmful to business.
Republicans who support the bill say the subsidy cuts would free up billions of dollars for other things.
The White House also released an article citing the National Association of Manufacturers defending the bill, saying that if it isn’t approved, there could be over a million lost manufacturing jobs.
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Nick Popham
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