Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) says she feels "cheated" after securing a hard-fought concession in President Trump's newly signed tax and spending bill—only to watch the administration undercut it days later with an executive order.
Before committing her vote to the "big, beautiful bill," Murkowski negotiated a 12-month extension for clean energy tax credits to support vital projects in Alaska. But three days after the bill's July 4 signing, Trump issued an executive order restricting those same credits, followed by an Interior Department directive tightening oversight.
"This just pulls the rug out from underneath the deal," Murkowski said, warning the moves could stall urgently needed energy projects in Alaska and force costly liquefied natural gas imports. "I read it as just a total affront to what we had negotiated," she told Anchorage Daily News.
The July 7 executive order aims to eliminate "preferential treatment" of wind and solar energy, and opens the door to limit tax credits awarded to clean energy projects.
The following week, the Interior Department announced that Secretary Doug Burgum's personal sign-off would be required on "all decisions, actions, consultations, and other undertakings ... related to wind and solar energy facilities." The process is expected to significantly slow progress on renewable energy projects.
"Do I feel like the administration was not being up front with us? Yes," Murkowski said. "To me, it's just reckless."
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Murkowski has gained a reputation in the GOP for leaning moderate, and was expected by some to be a hold out on Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill. When she voted to return the bill to the House, she acknowledged her hesitation. "We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination," she said. "My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we're not there yet."
Her hopes were not realized. The House passed the Senate's version of the bill to the president ahead of the July 4 deadline with time to spare.
"I said, 'Well, I got a hard-won fight on this is clean energy provision. It's not everything that I wanted, but it's going to keep some of our projects alive, and that's important,'" Murkowski reflected. "Now you have an executive order that goes against what the president himself signed into law, in my view."
Despite her frustration with the setback, Murkowski emphasized her commitment to bringing her constituents efficient power. "We have got to use all of our imagination, ingenuity and creativity to get them interested," she said.
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