June 09, 2025 10:39 AM UTC

Gabe Evans Begs Senate To Undo Clean Energy Cuts He Voted For

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Just over a week ago, America’s Most Vulnerable Freshman™ Rep. Gabe Evans held a press conference on the West Steps of the Colorado Capitol with lightning rod Rep. Lauren Boebert to tout the virtues of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” which we’ve followed Sen. Joni Ernst’s lead in renaming the “We’re All Going To Die Act”–an audacious move by Rep. Evans that we think was intended to show his resolve to stand up for the legislation he had just cast a deciding vote to pass, in the face of the angry protesters he knew couldn’t resist showing up to heckle two of their least favorite congresspeople in downtown Denver.

But as NBC News reported this weekend, behind the scenes, Rep. Evans is begging Senators now debating the reconciliation budget package to undo cuts to clean energy tax credits in the bill–cuts that, as we discussed last week, Evans paid lip service to opposing before voting for them:

The unusual criticism of their own bill indicates a modicum of regret by the GOP lawmakers, whose votes were critical to the bill passing the House by a narrow margin last month…

The 13 Republicans warned that “the House-passed bill includes a phase out schedule for credits that would cause significant disruption to projects under development and stop investments needed to win the global energy race.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee mocked the letter and said the lawmakers will own their votes for the bill.

“These 13 Republicans promised not to support cuts to clean energy tax credits, then cast the deciding votes to raise energy costs on American families, kill tens of thousands of jobs, and undermine our nation’s energy security. They are responsible for this Big, Ugly Bill and all the harm it will cause,” DCCC spokesperson Viet Shelton said. “This toothless letter is the worst kind of political hypocrisy and voters will see it for what it is, a lie perpetrated by endangered House Republicans who caved to their D.C. party bosses at the expense of the American people.”

So far, the only local news outlet to pick up Evans’ groveling to the Senate to undo his own mistake is 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark, who had this to say on Friday evening:

Rep Gabe Evans (R-CO) is asking Senate Republicans for help avoiding the clean energy cuts he voted for. #copolitics pic.twitter.com/BCd05u8XTq

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) June 7, 2025

Publicly, Republican Congressman Gabe Evans has been a faithful cheerleader for the Trump-backed budget plan to cut Medicaid and to phase out Biden-era clean energy tax credits. But today, Evans and a small group of House Republicans sent a letter to Senate leaders urging them to quote unquote mitigate the impact of the bill, as in mitigate the cutbacks that he himself voted for. This letter signed by 13 House Republicans calls for substantive and strategic improvements to the clean energy tax provisions in the Republican reconciliation bill.

You know, in the one big beautiful bill that Trump talks about?

Those Republicans say they fought against a full repeal of Biden era tax credits for clean energy projects, but that the remaining restrictions on tax credits for clean energy projects would delay or cancel energy infrastructure projects around the country. According to their letter, $14 billion worth of energy projects have been canceled since Trump came into office in January.

Evans’ district includes Weld County. That’s big oil and gas country, but his website also credits wind, solar, and geothermal. It’s critical to the local economies in this district. We asked his office which projects could be impacted in Colorado’s 8th district and why he voted for this bill if he’s so concerned about it, and we have not yet heard back. We’ll keep you updated.

The response from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to NBC News above is more than just bluster. Their characterization of Evans’ ex post facto letter to the Senate as “toothless” and “political hypocrisy” is pretty accurate in terms of its likely effect on negotiations in the Senate. And as The Hill followed up Friday, even if the Senate takes the sensible action they likely would have anyway to restore these clean energy tax credits, the House Freedom Caucus announced Friday that would be a nonstarter:

The conservative House Freedom Caucus said Friday it would “not accept” changes that “water down” its cuts to green energy tax credits as the Senate weighs whether to alter parts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act…

“We want to be crystal clear: if the Senate attempts to water down, strip out, or walk back the hard-fought spending reductions and IRA Green New Scam rollbacks achieved in this legislation, we will not accept it,” said the post, which was attributed to the Freedom Caucus’s board.

Of course, the most famous member of the House Freedom Caucus since the excommunication of Marjorie Taylor Greene is Lauren Boebert, who stood with Evans to celebrate the “We’re All Going To Die Act” less than two weeks ago. Now it’s Boebert’s Freedom Caucus standing in the way of Evans’ attempt to undo the damage he voted for. That irony only adds to the point: the best opportunity Gabe Evans had to protect clean energy funds was while the bill was being debated in the House. The bill passed the House by a single vote, meaning that any single lawmaker had the power to stand firm in support of something they wanted to protect. But Gabe Evans didn’t do that.

Instead, Gabe Evans voted with the herd, and is now begging the Senate to fix his mistake–which could kill the “We’re All Going To Die Act,” a fate Evans wants to avoid responsibility for by substituting action when it mattered with a “toothless letter” delivered after the fact.

It’s the textbook definition of political cowardice, folks.