TOBBA
As passed by the U.S. House, "The One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (TOBBA) mortgages "our children's future." It also assigns new power to the Executive branch, taking it away from the Judicial branch.
Today is Memorial Day in the United States, which was first widely observed on May 30, 1868 to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers. It officially became a national holiday in 1968. On its 50th anniversary in 2018, John P. Blair of the National Archives History Office wrote on the origins and evolution of Memorial Day. His post ends:
“As we recognize our freedom to attend our church of choice (or not to attend), to express our opinions or gather to discuss our beliefs and values, to be able to read the exchange of information openly in the press, to be able to defend ourselves and to understand that we have a system of justice, it is important to acknowledge that those freedoms are ours because of the many men, women, and families who stepped forward to defend them, and in that service, sacrificed their lives for us. Memorial Day is for them, all of them. It is our duty to remember the gift they have given us.”
This past week, news about “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (TOBBBA) dominated the U.S. headlines, with House Republicans passing it by a single vote.
Although with TOBBA the U.S. government appears poised to reverse course completely on sustainability efforts, as a reminder there is plenty that businesses, market authorities, universities, institutions, and individuals can do to avoid the proverbial “race to the bottom” without the federal government. Also, protests work, with inspiration starting immediately even if results take longer.
However, TOBBA now faces “swarm” of objections from Senate Republicans, including over the proposed termination of clean energy policies. It’s their voices that matter most because of the narrow party majority currently in the U.S. Senate.
As much as the U.S. is preoccupied with its own machinations, the vast majority of the world’s governments are preparing to re-affirm commitment to a sustainable ocean economy, part of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, in the upcoming (9-13 June) 2025 UN Ocean Conference. (Read a related Nature Sustainability editorial published on Friday, 23 May 2025.)
In addition, there’s global anticipation surrounding the forthcoming decision from the Higher Regional Court of Hamm (Germany) on the lawsuit brought nine years ago by the patient Peruvian against a Germany energy company over its contribution to global climate change. It’s the first such decision — of many lawsuits filed around the world, including several in the U.S. — that could start to establish energy-company-funded “superfunds” to help pay for climate-change mitigation.
Sustainability-Related TOBBA Specifics
Regarding Republican Senators’ objections to TOBBA and future U.S. policies regarding clean-energy projects, Senators Murkowski, Tillis, Moran, and Curtis wrote a letter (April 9) to Majority Leader Thune registering their concerns, including how “many American companies have made substantial investments in domestic energy production and infrastructure based on the current energy tax framework. A wholesale repeal, or the termination of certain individual credits, would create uncertainty, jeopardizing capital allocation, long-term project planning, and job creation in the energy sector and across our broader economy.”
Their anticipated concerns were warranted. As passed by the U.S. House, TOBBA includes the termination of the “clean vehicle credit,” “previously-owned clean vehicle credit,” “qualified commercial clean vehicles credit,” “alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit,” “energy efficient home improvement credit,” “residential clean energy credit,” “new energy efficient home credit,” “clean hydrogen production credit,” and even the “qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement exclusion.”
Along with “no tax on car loan interest” and new energy projects — including opening up new lands for mining and drilling — an implied goal of TOBBA is transitioning the U.S. economy back to higher production/consumption of fossil fuels. Indeed, TOBBA includes “repeal and rescission” of many other environmental protections, including those recently passed in the Inflation Reduction Act (such as the “advanced technology vehicle manufacturing,” “interregional and offshore wind electricity transmission planning, modeling, and analysis,” and “advanced industrial facilities deployment program”). Rules around automobile fuel economy (“CAFE”) standards are to be cut as well, a policy shift that appears to have been informed by A.I. making things up to justify it rather than following what economists actually advise, as reported earlier on SustainLab.
Further, TOBBA also excludes "judicial review" — sometimes termed "judicial preclusion" — about oil and gas projects in Alaska, mining in national forests in Minnesota, and expedited permitting… everywhere. So, as passed by the U.S. House, TOBBA assigns new power to the Executive branch, taking power away from the Judicial branch, further upsetting the balance of power and the sustainability of the U.S. system of justice.
Finally (though I'm sure there is still more to notice, sustainability-wise, in the 1,116-page TOBBA) the “nonprofit-killer bill” was — in the dead of night — slipped back in. If it survives revisions in the U.S. Senate, it would give the Administration the power to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit (including universities, journalism outlets, churches) that it decides is a “terrorist-supporting organization” and thus suppress free speech, activism, or even nonprofits that comfort the afflicted.
If you, like me, are a citizen of the United States — whatever your political persuasion or ideology — please consider contacting your U.S. Senators about not repeating that unsustainable, “manufactured emergency” process that led to TOBBA’s passage in the U.S. House. If you need inspiration, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) said yesterday that the House “rushed the process” and “you have to do the work and you need the time to do the work” and that TOBBA*, as written, mortgages the next generation’s future.
* I left out a “B” for beautiful. It’s not.
Thanks for helping me understand better what is at stake.