At a Senate Budget Committee hearing, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) questioned President Trump’s nominee for Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Hal Duncan, about the need to advance critical wind projects in Iowa and about implementation of the Clean Fuels Production Tax Credit, or 45Z, which Congress extended and modified in the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.
Grassley also praised the Trump administration’s work to cut bureaucratic red tape. In 2025, the administration slashed 129 existing regulations for each new regulation issued.
This week, Grassley welcomed the Department of Energy’s updates to the 45Z GREET model, which eliminated indirect land use change (ILUC) from its carbon intensity calculations.
On the administration’s efforts to slash red tape:
I think that President Trump is doing a real good job of bringing the regulatory state, reining it in. At the start of his term, President Trump set a benchmark of slashing 10 existing regulations for every new regulation issued. I understand the administration far exceeded that [in 2025] with maybe a ratio of one [new regulation] to 129 [deregulatory actions]. How accurate is that number, and what has this meant in terms of time and dollars saved by the private sector? And, can that be measured with some certainty?
On rolling back barriers to wind energy:
On my next question, just keep in the back of your mind, the reason I’m asking about wind energy is I authored that legislation in 1992. One of the stated objectives of the administration’s deregulatory agenda is to eliminate obstacles to energy production. As a supporter of an all-of-the-above energy strategy, I’m concerned that this commitment isn’t being applied consistently to all forms of energy.
In Iowa, several wind energy projects are currently halted. This is due to some revaluation of the wind energy mitigation agreement process performed by the Department of Defense (DOD). My staff has been in contact with DOD, and I understand that there is an effort to identify projects of low national security concern for approval.
What is OMB’s role in this process, and will you commit to working with me to mitigate bureaucratic red tape standing in the way of Iowa wind projects? By the way, we get 60% of our electricity in Iowa from wind.
On the Clean Fuels Production Tax Credit (45Z):
As part of the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, Congress extended and modified the clean fuels tax credit, with an eye towards making it work better for farmers. Seeing this law implemented properly and in a timely fashion is a top priority of mine.
In April, USDA submitted to your agency a biofuel feedstock rule that’s related to accurately calculating this credit. This rule is necessary to ensure farmers can fully participate in the program.
When can farmers expect OMB to complete this review process? And, before you answer that, I just think over the weekend this process may have been smoothed out a little bit by finally the Department of Energy reaching some agreements that were necessary before you would get the rule.
Green energy is not green, particularly wind and solar. The cement foundation of a windmill is 100 times more than what is needed for foundational work of any other type of energy protection, particularly gas turbines. The only way to make wind energy profitable is to subsidize it to the level of 45% of everybody’s money wind energy is extremely expensive and it is not Green.
Wind and solar are not the solution to supply the grid with energy. It is not because they are unsightly, noisy, cause shadow flicker, are detrimental to drainage tile, use prime farm land for very little energy – all of which they do. It is because of the physics of wind and solar. They are intermittent, diffuse energy sources that depend on gas, nuclear and coal for backup. Having both causes inefficiency and more expense. Without the subsidies, this push would not exist.