Echo Communications in Inside Climate News

Chris Moyer, founder and president of Echo Communications Advisors, was quoted in Inside Climate News shortly after Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted to repeal clean energy incentives:

Inside Climate News: Congress Begins Repeal of Clean Energy Tax Credits With ‘Sledgehammer Approach’

By Marianne Lavelle, Dan Gearino
May 14, 2025

Congress began tearing down the most consequential climate policy it had ever passed as torrents from a 1,000-mile-long atmospheric river lashed Washington, D.C.

[…]

But the Republican leadership framed clean energy incentives as something solely of interest to the upper classes, naming this section of the legislation, “Working Families Over Elites.” (In fact, Democrats had designed the IRA to extend the benefits of clean energy to working class communities, offering tax credits for used EVs for the first time and providing bonus tax credits for projects located near old fossil fuel industry sites or in low-income communities.)

The tax credits that go to businesses and investors are eliminated more slowly, with phase-out of most beginning in 2029. But since the consumer credits would help generate the market demand that developers and producers are relying on, the extra time may not help.

“This is the first concrete act of this Congress to attempt to dismantle these tax credits, and a lot of folks in the industry were hoping for a better starting point,” said Chris Moyer, a former Democratic staffer on Capitol Hill and the founder of Echo Communications, who now advises clean energy companies. “I will emphasize this is a starting point and it’s very unlikely this version will become law. However, a lot of this could become law, and that’s the concerning thing.”

He and other clean energy advocates will argue that withdrawing support for new energy projects is at odds with Trump’s energy abundance and dominance themes. The vulnerable tax credits are especially important for forms of energy that Republicans say they support, like nuclear and advanced geothermal developments, that need a long lead time.

[…]

Pressure Points

Moyer, however, wrote in a recent note that he is concerned that only four Republican Senators have stepped forward in favor of clean energy policy, and he said it is clear from their letter that they want to work behind the scenes instead of forcing a showdown on the Senate floor. He is urging clients to ramp up public pressure and hold in-district press events until the days that votes are taken.

“The message has to be that you can’t let up,” Moyer told Inside Climate News. “And the folks who I think are the most influential at this moment are the CEOs of companies in various districts that have projects that are underway or about to be underway, and the workers in these districts. Whether it’s in Georgia or Arizona or New York or anywhere else, it’s trying to make clear to their members of Congress that there’s a lot on the line here.”