Republicans have done something remarkable in Washington: They passed a serious rollback of green subsidies. The recently passed House reconciliation bill repeals or phases out most of the costly energy subsidies from Joe Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

While the repeal could go much further in rolling back energy subsidies, it marks the most meaningful retrenchment of green tax incentives in memory. The Senate must treat the House-passed repeal as the new floor for tax negotiations, not a ceiling.

If Senate Republicans water down these reforms, it would be tantamount to passing the IRA again, this time with only Republican votes. It would betray President Trump’s campaign promise to “terminate” what he calls “the Green New Scam.”

The IRA turned the tax code into a multi-trillion-dollar entitlement program for Democrats’ preferred energy sources. The most expensive credits were designed without meaningful caps, sunsets, or guardrails. Cost estimates for these tax breaks have skyrocketed from $270 billion at passage to more than $1 trillion over ten years. Other estimates suggest they could cost up to $4.7 trillion by 2050.

This is not just fiscal bloat — it’s a distortion of energy markets. New power projects are being designed to maximize tax benefits rather than reduce emissions or produce low-cost, reliable energy. The result is a misallocation of investment, funded by taxpayers. Sometimes these handouts cost as much as $7 million per job created, and environmental outcomes are worse than expected. The U.S. is now projected to emit more carbon in 2030 than it would have without the IRA.

That’s why the House’s paring back of the IRA is so important. It phases out many of the biggest IRA credits, includes construction and placed-in-service requirements, outright repeals costly perks like the electric vehicle and clean hydrogen credits, and adds new limits on subsidies going to foreign adversaries, such as China. The House proposal isn’t perfect — it maintains and even expands some subsidies — but Senate Republicans must not retreat from it.

Doing so would amount to re-subsidizing Biden’s climate agenda with only GOP votes. Worse, it would undermine the very platform that Donald Trump and congressional Republicans campaigned on: energy independence, less spending, and putting American taxpayers before green cronyism.

Full, immediate repeal remains the best choice. Senator Mike Lee’s (R., Utah) Energy Freedom Act would move closer to that goal, ending all IRA subsidies this year. This should be the Senate’s goal.

Subsidy-dependent industries are already racing to lock in benefits before potential repeal and lobbying Congress to keep the gravy train flowing. Any sign of Senate retreat will only accelerate this dash for taxpayer cash and solidify dependence on taxpayer subsidies. History is littered with temporary tax subsidies that became permanent fixtures — just ask the ethanol lobby. Republicans can finally break that trend.

Congress has a rare opportunity to restore a more neutral tax code, reduce the deficit, and fix energy markets. They shouldn’t blow it by pandering to special interests. The House-passed IRA repeal package isn’t perfect, but it is a massive improvement over current law. Any Senate move to weaken its reforms would be nothing short of surrender.