Congress’s cuts threaten America’s technology progress

The policy brief identifies a "missing middle" investment gap where energy infrastructure projects are too large for venture capital but too risky for institutional investors. It proposes a systemic bankability framework consisting of nine conditions—including risk management, regulatory certainty, and infrastructure access—that the federal government must help establish to catalyze private investment. The authors warn that proposed House budget reconciliation cuts to tax credits and the cessation of Department of Energy grant and loan programs threaten the commercialization of strategic technologies like CCS, nuclear, and geothermal energy.

• Energy infrastructure technologies face a "missing middle" structural investment gap where demonstration projects require investment scales that are "too large for venture investors, but too risky for institutional investors," causing technology progress to stall.
• To achieve "systemic bankability"—defined as access to large-scale institutional capital—nine conditions must be established: construction cost overrun risk, technology performance risks, revenue adequacy risk, regulatory certainty, access to enabling infrastructure networks, social acceptance, robust supply chains, access to commercial insurance, and an adequate delivery system.
• Current legislative and executive actions are largely hindering the ability of strategic technologies to overcome market gaps, specifically through proposed House budget reconciliation cuts to tax credits that "undermine revenue adequacy" and the termination of Department of Energy grant and loan programs which reduces the "crowding-in of private investment."

APA

Spokas, K., & Waltzer, K. (2025). Congress’s cuts threaten America’s technology progress. Clean Air Task Force. https://www.catf.us/2025/06/congresss-cuts-threaten-americas-technology-progress/

Chicago

Spokas, Kasparas, and Kurt Waltzer. Congress’s cuts threaten America’s technology progress. Clean Air Task Force, 2025. https://www.catf.us/2025/06/congresss-cuts-threaten-americas-technology-progress/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Spokas |first1=Kasparas |last2=Waltzer |first2=Kurt |title=Congress’s cuts threaten America’s technology progress |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=13 June 2025 |url=https://www.catf.us/2025/06/congresss-cuts-threaten-americas-technology-progress/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{spokas2025congresss, author = {Spokas, Kasparas and Waltzer, Kurt}, title = {{Congress’s cuts threaten America’s technology progress}}, institution = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2025}, month = jun, url = {https://www.catf.us/2025/06/congresss-cuts-threaten-americas-technology-progress/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }