LETTER: Green energy subsidies a must for the future

Katie Fetterman’s May 15 Review-Journal article (“CCSD may vote on $5M AC plan”) painted a worrisome picture of the Clark County School District’s aging equipment battling it out against our record-breaking summers. I’m glad the school board is working to protect students from the hot consequences of deferred maintenance.

The whole country is in a similar fix, with a lot of our energy infrastructure dating to the 1960s, and grid reliability in decline for at least a decade.

As a nation, we’ve started taking proactive steps to invest in a bigger, better, more reliable grid. Sadly, the House Ways and Means Committee last week proposed to end some of the best tools we have to accomplish this: production and investment tax credits, home energy efficiency credits, rooftop solar credits and more. These changes would raise energy costs for American households by as much as 7 percent, and put half a trillion dollars of new energy infrastructure at risk.

This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Some Republican members of Congress, including Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei, have shown great leadership in supporting existing Inflation Reduction Act incentives. I hope the House and Senate will stand against this backward and harmful portion of the budget reconciliation measure.

We all want to reduce government waste, but these cuts will cost us all, in both the near and long term. The school district needs investment to meet the future, and so does the rest of Nevada.