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House Republicans have gotten themselves into a tricky situation.

The party says it will vote to raise the debt ceiling — and avert an economically ruinous default on the United States’ financial obligations — only if Congress axes a slew of clean energy tax credits passed in the Inflation Reduction Act.

But the majority of those credits are benefiting red states.

President Joe Biden’s historic climate law has already driven $150 billion in new investments for solar and wind projects, electric vehicles, and other low-carbon technology, according to an analysis from the American Clean Power Association. And the bulk of those new projects are in GOP-led congressional districts.

An analysis by POLITICO early this year similarly found that Republican districts were home to about two-thirds of the major renewable energy, battery and electric vehicle projects that companies had announced since the IRA became law in August.

Some Republican officials are embracing the windfall. Gov. Brian Kemp, for example, is aggressively pursuing a clean energy economy in Georgia. But House hard-liners say the investments are an example of irresponsible spending.

Earlier this week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California did not appear eager to target the green tax credits in debt ceiling negotiations. But pressure from the party’s right flank seems to have forced his hand, writes POLITICO’s E&E News reporter Jeremy Dillon.

Republicans argue that the open-ended tax credits could push the total cost of the climate law over $1 trillion — a far cry from the measure’s stated $369 billion price tag. All in all, the GOP plan would repeal or revise 24 tax incentives established or tweaked by Biden’s climate law.

Unsurprisingly, the White House is having none of it.

“That’s the MAGA economic agenda: spending cuts for working and middle-class folks,” Biden said Wednesday in response to the GOP’s opening bid. “It’s not about fiscal discipline; it’s about cutting benefits for folks that they don’t seem to care much about.”

Republicans are unlikely to convince Democrats to nix any low-carbon credits or agree to the numerous other spending cuts in the GOP’s 300-page-plus bill.

But if GOP lawmakers refuse to vote to raise the debt ceiling, the U.S. could default on its debt as early as June. That would leave the government without money to pay not only creditors, but also the military, federal employees, beneficiaries of programs like Social Security and Medicare, and numerous other people and institutions.

There are, however, areas ripe for compromise. Part of the GOP proposal is a measure that would ease permitting rules for new energy infrastructure and mining projects, which might find some favor among Democrats.

It’s Thursday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO’s Power Switch. I’m your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected]

Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Kelsey Tamborrino breaks down why House lawmakers from both parties are moving toward reversing the Biden administration’s controversial two-year pause on solar import tariffs from four Southeast Asian countries.

In a first-ever report, the federal government estimated that more than 110 million acres of old-growth forests, which are hundreds of years old, are still standing on public lands, despite years of logging and wildfires, writes Marc Heller.

The finding could lead to new protections for U.S. forests, which many argue are critical for storing carbon dioxide that would otherwise exacerbate climate change. But the report, a year in the making, and any subsequent conservation efforts are likely to compound long-standing tensions with the timber industry.

Adding to the money pot
The United States will contribute $1 billion to the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund — the first U.S. payment into the pot of climate finance for developing countries since 2017, writes Sara Schonhardt.

The move is an attempt to burnish the United States’ credibility after former President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans zeroed out U.S. contributions for the program, writes Zack Colman.

Are states ready for winter?
Legislators and regulators vowed two years ago to hold energy companies accountable after Winter Storm Uri caused power outages across the central United States, writes Shelby Webb.

But in Texas and Oklahoma — the largest natural gas-producing states — investigations into actions during the storm have sputtered.

Spain’s water war
A dispute over a 200-mile waterway in Spain is heating up ahead of local elections in May, highlighting the pressure on Spain’s water resources as climate change threatens supply, writes Guy Hedgecoe.

For four decades, water has been diverted from Spain’s Tagus River to the Segura River in the southeast to help grow crops. But the Spanish government wants to increase the Tagus’ flow to provide more water for towns and cities, angering farmers.

Heating up: A historic heat wave in Asia is breaking hundreds of records, with extremes in Thailand and China.

Report: Nearly one in five Americans live in communities with harmful air quality.

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Colorado could become the first state in 41 years to create a state-chartered property insurance program, as insurance companies drop homes amid record-setting wildfires.

EPA has proposed banning most of the uses of methylene chloride, a chemical used in powerful paint strippers that has been linked to dozens of deaths, cancer and organ toxicity.

A congressional effort to overturn a Biden administration-crafted pause on solar import tariffs breezed through a House committee, but the future of the effort remains unclear.

That’s it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.