Keep tax credits for producing zero-emission clean energy
Energy and environment
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
Tax credits are written by Congress, so the goal itself sits with government. Corporate behavior helps at the margin: companies decide whether to invest in the clean generation the credits reward, and their advocacy shapes whether the credits survive. InfluenceMap found two-thirds of corporate advocacy on the Inflation Reduction Act's climate and energy provisions was supportive heading into 2025. Shareholder pressure can align more corporate lobbying behind the credits but cannot enact them. Congress itself has since removed much of this credit. The July 2025 budget law phases out the wind and solar production credits after 2027, despite predominantly supportive business advocacy. Coverage of the fight concluded that ideology, not industry, drove the cuts, so the primary obstacle is partisan fiscal politics rather than corporate opposition.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Common Ground of the American People: Energy & the Environment, Program for Public Consultation / Voice of the People, 2026 (studies July 2024, June 2016)
- US Corporate Climate Advocacy Going Into 2025, InfluenceMap, 2024-12
- The One Big Beautiful Bill: Impact on the IRA's Clean Energy Tax Credits, Steptoe LLP, 2025-07-23
- Ideology, not industry, snipped green energy tax credits, Axios Pro, 2025-05-23
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Coordinates Ceres Investor Network and Climate Action 100+ filings asking companies to report whether their direct lobbying and trade association memberships align with the Paris Agreement, the mechanism through which corporate advocacy on clean energy incentives is contested.
Led the first Paris-aligned climate lobbying proposals to win majority support, at Chevron and later at Delta Air Lines and ExxonMobil.
3 campaigns on record
Publish a report on the company's climate lobbying and climate-related policy engagement.
With Mercy Investment Services, RPMI Railpen
Result: not stated in source
Have the board evaluate and report on how the company's lobbying activities align with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Result: Majority support; exact percentage not stated in source
Ceres reports that CSX, Duke Energy, Entergy, FirstEnergy, General Motors and Valero Energy agreed to improve lobbying disclosure and the proposals at those companies were withdrawn.
Produce a report disclosing the extent to which the company's lobbying aligns with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Result: 53 percent majority support, the first year such a measure appeared on Chevron's ballot.
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is Common Ground of the American People's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.