(USNewsMag.com) – If former President Donald Trump is re-elected in November, Texas could lose the billions of dollars invested in their economy by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) if Trump overturned the IRA, passed by President Joe Biden in 2022.
Experts are weighing in on the impact undoing the IRA would have on states after Trump allies began hinting that Trump could potentially overturn the IRA if he is re-elected in November.
The IRA invests $500 billion in infrastructure to transition to a green economy. Texas benefits the most from the IRA, and by 2030, Texas will have received $131 billion in investments, which incentivize projects such as solar farms, according to an analysis by energy consultancy RMI. Texas is one of the Republican-led states that will receive the most per-capita funding from the IRA.
Businesses in Texas could lose if the IRA is repealed. Due to the economic climate created by the IRA, a solar power developer is setting up a manufacturing base outside Houston, Texas. Businesses in the hydrogen energy industry are also able to draw tax credits from the IRA and have been expanding their businesses in Texas. Some experts have noted that even partially repealing the IRA could affect certain business sectors and repealing the IRA could potentially cost Texas tens of thousands of jobs. The move to repeal the IRA could allow China and other foreign competitors to step up manufacturing, creating more jobs in foreign countries instead of in the United States.
Despite some officials hinting Trump would repeal the IRA, some experts believe he would have a hard time overturning it because it would require a majority vote in the Senate, currently controlled by the Democrats. A professor of political science at Hunter College, City University New York, Roger Karapin, said that the IRA gives Republican states and areas “disproportionate benefits,” therefore even if Republicans gained control of the Senate, some may vote against repealing the legislation.
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