Republicans have vowed to tear apart the Inflation Reduction Act, but the chief executive of NextEra Energy, the US’s largest renewable developer, says that’s “unlikely” if they win the election.

The US’s largest renewable developer on the IRA

The Biden administration’s landmark climate change law, the Inflation Reduction Act, has created a US clean energy manufacturing boom, thanks to the generous tax credits and other incentives. The Republican Party says it’s going to work to repeal it.

But NextEra Energy’s chief executive, John Ketchum, told analysts yesterday [via the Financial Times] that “in the 21 years I’ve been at the company, as we’ve changed administrations and as we’ve seen changes in Congress, we’ve never seen a change or repeal of tax credits – no matter what form they’ve taken… [it’s] really hard to overturn existing law … no matter what the political winds are.”

He also pointed out, “If you think about where the investments are being made around IRA and where a lot of the benefit of IRA is flowing, it’s flowing to Republican states, and it’s flowing to parts of those states that are really difficult to stimulate economically.”

Florida-based NextEra Energy is the fourth-largest US energy group after oil majors ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. It saw record renewables and battery storage orders in 2022 and 2023 that totaled 17,000 megawatts of capacity.

If it meets its 2026 targets, NextEra Energy will have a portfolio of 63 GW in operation – or as the FT points out, “more than all but nine countries in the world.”

Electrek’s Take

What Ketchum says carries weight, as his company is a renewable powerhouse – and it also owns Republican stronghold Florida’s largest electric utility.

And it would be self-defeating for states like Texas, South Carolina, and Tennessee to work to repeal a law that’s creating jobs and bringing money into their states. But time will tell.

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