Looming Cuts to Clean Energy Incentives Cast Shadow over Santa Barbara Supervisors Meeting

July 1, 2025

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U.S. senators pulled an all nighter on Monday, eventually sending President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” to the House on Tuesday, with a tie-breaking vote cast by Vice President JD Vance. In addition to slashing the food-stamp program and healthcare subsidies and taking $1 trillion away from Medicaid, the contentious bill also promises to nix clean-energy tax credits.

About an hour after the federal bill passed the Senate, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors received an update on where the county stands on renewable energy output and usage from representatives of the Tri-County Regional Energy Network (3C-REN) and Central Coast Community Energy (3CE). Both consortiums work together to power much of Santa Barbara County and are dedicated to the transition to green power.

“Wind and solar facilities are built faster than natural gas facilities, and they are now a lot cheaper,” said Das Williams, 3CE’s senior advisor for policy and legislative affairs. The former 1st District county supervisor now works on local, state, and federal policy for the nonprofit. “You’re not going to cause more people to turn to natural gas or gas-fired power plants,” he said.

Left to right: Jesús Armas, Santa Barbara County Director of Community Services Department; Garrett Wong, Climate Program Manager for the County of Santa Barbara; and Lori La Riva, multifamily program manager for 3C-REN. | Credit: Elaine Sanders

According to Williams, 3CE is not going to stop using or pursuing green energy infrastructure, but the looming cut to green-energy tax credits “means that in subsequent years, as these credits are phased out, that projects will cost more.”

Williams urged consumers and constituents who are “considering the purchase of an EV or home energy efficiency work, that they do so this year.”

Board Chair Laura Capps was very complimentary of 3C-REN’s progress of dramatically increasing their number of customers served in 2024 by 430 percent while simultaneously cutting carbon emissions by 18 tons in the same one-year period. Even more growth, in both areas, is projected for 2025. With a focus on hard-to-reach customers, many who have received free or reduced-cost assistance from 3C-REN, reside in Guadeloupe and Santa Maria.

“Our funding is secure,” says Lori La Riva, the multifamily program manager for 3C-REN. Most of the 3C-REN projects are financed by utility bill payers and the state, “but some of our bigger projects depend on federal funding.”