Why did Barrett vote to kill Michigan’s clean energy economy?

(The author is an East Lansing resident who used the clean energy residential credit to put solar panels on her roof.)

I am deeply disappointed in my new representative in the U.S. Congress, Republican Tom Barrett. For reasons I can’t begin to understand, he just cast the deciding vote to wipe out the federal clean energy tax credits that helped my family reduce our energy bill by putting solar panels on the roof of our home.

That’s not all. By voting for the so-called “big, beautiful” budget bill that Trump and his billionaire friends are trying to shove down our throats, Barrett voted to kill thousands of good-paying jobs in our state’s growing clean energy economy and to sacrifice Michigan’s global leadership in the development of new clean energy technologies like electric vehicles and battery storage.

Tom, selling out your constituents because you’re afraid of the misguided madman currently occupying the Oval Office isn’t just a bad look, it’s a terrible way to begin your service to the people of the 7th Congressional District.

The facts speak for themselves. Over 90% of new energy production in the United States last year was from solar and wind developments. Our inevitable transition away from fossil fuels to cleaner, more affordable renewable energy is well underway and it makes no sense to try and block it.

We now have a choice: We can either lead the way in the clean energy revolution or get run over by foreign competitors. In casting the deciding vote for the federal budget reconciliation bill, Barrett made the wrong choice for our district, for Michigan and for the nation.

Pulling the rug out from the residential clean energy tax credit alone will cost Michigan thousands of jobs and deny access to more affordable energy for residents across the state. Eliminating the tax credit for purchasing electric vehicles will only slow down our transition to the future of mobility and leave us miles behind the competition, which will cost us even more jobs. And wiping out federal support for new investments in clean energy projects and the technologies of the future is an enormous mistake.

Barrett’s vote also enables the federal government to claw back a $500 million federal grant that would have helped General Motors retool the Lansing Grand River Assembly plant for EV production, which would save 650 good jobs and create 50 more.

It’s no secret why Trump and MAGA Republicans like Barrett want to wreck our clean energy economy and wipe out thousands of good-paying jobs: It’s time to pay back the Big Oil donors who funded Trump’s campaign. They want to force us to continue buying their dirty fossil fuels and driving gas-powered cars so they can make even more money at the expense of cleaner air, cleaner water and more affordable energy for the rest of us.

We didn’t put solar panels on the roof of our home just to save money on our electric bill. We did it for our children and our grandchildren. We did it to leave them a better planet than we inherited from our own parents. Our elected officials in Washington need to understand that we’re counting on them to support and encourage the transition to clean energy because our children’s future depends on it.

Now that the Republican reconciliation abomination has moved on to the U.S. Senate —  thanks to Tom Barrett — let’s make sure our Democratic U.S. senators, Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, do the right thing and fight back against this ugly, ill-advised attempt to dismantle Michigan’s clean energy progress.