The One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the Future of Clean Energy

“The goals for carbon reduction … really have to come from the commercial landscape. What do investors prioritize? There still is an emphasis on carbon reduction, but there is also a heavy emphasis on return on investment. The two shall meet somewhere in the middle, but make no mistake, capital chases returns. So if you start pouring money into things that do not generate adequate returns for investment, those things will not continue to happen. And the companies that are doing that will have to shift course.”

— Ken Medlock, Ph.D., James A. Baker. III and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics and Senior Director, Center for Energy Studies, Baker Institute

About the Episode

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the major budget bill signed into law by President Donald Trump last month, includes important changes to federal energy policy — among them, an earlier end to wind and solar tax credits than outlined in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and expanded support for nuclear and geothermal energy, as well as fossil fuels.

Center for Energy Studies Senior Director Ken Medlock joined the podcast to discuss the bill’s implications for the clean energy landscape and the key role of energy markets in dictating the future success of decarbonization and broader efforts to tackle climate change.

This conversation was recorded on Aug. 6, 2025. 

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Transcript

View the transcript for this episode. This transcript was AI-generated and has not been through editorial review.

About ‘Baker Briefing’

Hosted by David M. Satterfield,  the “Baker Briefing” podcast delivers timely analysis on breaking policy developments and other critical policy issues of the day in conversations with experts at the Baker Institute. New episodes are released weekly.

Select episodes of “Baker Briefing” are recorded in front of a live audience at Rice University in Houston, Texas. These recordings are free and open to the public. To learn about upcoming recordings and other public programming from the Baker Institute, subscribe to our “Events Digest” newsletter, delivered weekly.

This material may be quoted or reproduced without prior permission, provided appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. The views expressed herein are those of the individual author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.