Oregon could lose about 4 gigawatts of planned wind and solar energy, or enough energy to power one million homes, as the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill becomes law.

Solar developers said the law would almost certainly mean Oregon will not meet its goal of transitioning the power grid to 100% renewable energy by 2040 and are calling on state lawmakers to help developers get projects online sooner.

“There’s a bunch of work to do now,” said David Brown, owner of Portland-based Obsidian Renewables. “People should be very focused on getting it done. There’s no point in spending any time or energy on a new project at this point.”

Last week, Congress passed the controversial One Big Beautiful Bill, which makes significant changes to many programs Oregonians depend on, like Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. The law also made sweeping changes that make it more difficult to add more wind and solar energy to the power grid.

Under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, wind and solar developers could receive tax credits for building renewable energy projects. The credits were aimed at helping boost the renewable energy industry to help transition from using fossil fuels like oil and gas to power homes.

The new law phases out those tax credits, which helped lower construction costs for wind and solar.

Now, to qualify for the tax credit, projects that already started construction by July 4 have four years to come online. Projects starting after that date only have two years.

The tighter deadlines make it more difficult for developers to begin construction on new projects and plug into the power grid, as siting projects and getting permits to build them could be a years-long process that involves multiple government agencies.

The law will also disqualify projects that start after December if they receive materials from China, Iran, Russia or North Korea.

To keep track of what projects may be at risk, Atlas Public Policy created the Clean Economy Tracker, which tracks renewable energy manufacturing and power deployment across the country.

Atlas Public Policy, a data and policy firm based in Washington, D.C., found that nearly 50 gigawatts of planned wind and solar power projects across the nation are at risk of not coming online under the new law.

Only energy powerhouse Texas is poised to lose more renewable energy because of the bill than Oregon.

The push toward electrification, like switching to energy-efficient appliances and increasing electric vehicles, and the data center boom are causing the demand for energy to skyrocket. Meanwhile, the ability to meet those demands is shrinking as the Trump administration continues to target and halt the development of renewable energy projects.

“We’re going to be taking capacity off the grid at a time when we actually need to be increasing it as much as we can,” Atlas senior policy analyst Rachel Reolfi said.

Reolfi said there will still be a demand for wind and solar, which she said are “still the cheapest source of new electricity that you can build.”

“It’s just a matter of how fast we’re going to see it accelerate,” she said.

But she expects to see delays and cancellations unless states help projects get through the finish line, whether that be creating state incentives to get those projects done or meeting with developers to understand what their needs are.

“Unfortunately it does put more of an onus on the states to do that and make sure at the very least that these existing projects can move forward and then also keep the pipeline full of more projects in the future,” she said.

For wind and solar developers, getting their projects to begin construction within the next two years to qualify for those tax credits may be a tall task, as finding a place to build their projects and getting permits to build is a yearslong process.

Brown, a solar developer based near Portland, has been waiting more than five years to begin construction on his 400-megawatt solar farm in Central Oregon. Brown is the senior principal of Obsidian Renewables.

He’s waiting on the Bonneville Power Administration to allow his project to connect to its transmission lines. Bonneville is the largest grid owner in the Northwest, and its lines are largely full with no capacity for new generators. It can take years before Bonneville determines whether a project can plug into the grid.

According to Atlas’s Clean Economy Tracker, there are nine wind and solar projects at risk of not qualifying for the tax credit. Brown’s solar farm is one of nine on the list of wind and solar projects the bill has put at risk.

“I’m optimistic that many of those can be managed to completion,” Brown said.

Projects that have already begun the process to connect to the grid are best positioned, he said. If they haven’t, “Then you have no chance.”

But that process includes acquiring state land use and siting permits that could take years to get. A project may also have to go through an environmental impact study that could take years to finish and add additional years for when a project may be approved.

No project can begin construction until they have all the necessary permits, Brown said, another blow in helping get these planned projects online sooner.

Brown said if Gov. Tina Kotek calls for a special session for a transportation bill, as she has alluded to, there’s a good chance people will be asking for legislation to speed up the permitting process.

“Several of us will be asking for some relief to be allowed to begin construction to qualify for these credits,” he said. “I do expect there will be some legislative proposals to allow projects to begin even if they don’t have all of their final permits.”

But when asked about legislative proposals, Anca Matica, spokesperson for Kotek, said if a special session is called, the focus will solely be on the Oregon Department of Transportation.

“Precedent dictates that special sessions are most effective and successful when they are narrowly focused to an issue at hand,” she said in an emailed statement. ”Based on the urgency of the funding gap within ODOT, the Governor is laser-focused on solving the biggest problem in front of Oregonians.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/07/10/under-trumps-new-law-oregon-could-lose-big-on-solar-and-wind-energy-projects/