GEOFF BENNETT: Some of the provisions being debated in the budget bill would end a host of tax credits for renewable energy, including one that allows homeowners to recoup 30 percent of the cost of a rooftop solar system.

Solar businesses say losing that subsidy could deal a serious blow to the rooftop solar industry across the country.

As part of our series Tipping Point focused on environmental issues, we're taking a closer look at the potential impact of this bill with Dan Conant.

He's the founder of Solar Holler.

That's a solar installation company based in West Virginia.

Dan, thanks for being here.

We appreciate it.

DAN CONANT, CEO, Solar Holler: Thanks so much for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, as I said, you're based in West Virginia, traditionally coal country, yet you have built a successful solar business there.

What's driving demand?

Who are your clients and what kind of projects are you focused on?

DAN CONANT: Yes.

We work with folks all over West Virginia, whether you're a homeowner or a church or school or a pepperoni roll bakery recently.

Really proud of that one.

We really work with all kinds of folks.

And we have been at it for the past 12 years.

And it's been really amazing to see the growth of this industry in a place that people told me, frankly, like, not to bother with, because it's a coal country.

But what's been really interesting to see is how much how much folks want solar.

And really the reason is that people have been hit hard by rising utility bills over the years.

A.P., the main utility in Southern West Virginia, is raising rates 15 to 20 percent right now on top of a 30 percent rate hike that they have had over the last couple of years.

So that's been hitting families hard and businesses.

And so really for the first time people are trying to take control of how they make their power by investing in solar projects.

GEOFF BENNETT: When you talk about the growth of the industry with this 30 percent federal tax credit sunsetting at the end of the year, what impact do you expect that to have on demand and how is the industry preparing for that drop-off?

DAN CONANT: Yes, across the country, we're seeing a lot of concern within the solar industry, not just about the reduction in the tax credit itself.

The bigger concern has really been around the speed.

And folks are calling it a cliff.

We have -- we had been banking on solar credits being around for the next 10 years.

Through the Inflation Reduction Act, everything was in place through 2033.

And now all of a sudden we're seeing the drop-off in the space of a matter of months.

And so that's been the real concern that folks across the industry have been voicing.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, critics have said that the federal government has been artificially propping up the solar industry with these tax credits for years.

What do you make of that and can the industry survive without federal support?

DAN CONANT: The industry will survive.

We're not going anywhere.

But I will say there's going to be a big drop-off in demand in the coming years.

And unfortunately that's coming at a really bad time, with the growth of artificial intelligence, with the growth of data centers, including in my hometown in West Virginia, where we're seeing an explosion of demand for electricity on the grid.

And actually just last week here in the mid-Atlantic we saw record power prices and record demand.

Solar is the fastest way to get more power on the grid.

And if you want to be controlling the future, if you want to be controlling the future of A.I.

and beating China, you just need more power and you need it fast.

And, unfortunately with this bill, the way it's written right now, it's really going to scale back our ambitions as a nation.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tell me about the work that you have done retraining and employing former coal workers to install solar panels.

DAN CONANT: When we started out, there was basically no one doing solar in West Virginia.

And, as someone who was born and raised and proudly from West Virginia, I wanted to make sure that kids like me didn't have to move away to be a part of the energy industry, that we could all see the writing on the wall that renewables were going to be taking over the world.

And I wanted to make sure that West Virginians could continue to power the rest of the country, just like we have for the last 150 years.

Just because we're changing energy sources doesn't mean we need to change who we are as a state or turn our backs on all the progress that we have made with the labor movement over the years.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, big picture, though, what's the impact, though, of losing the federal support and of the Republicans in Congress who say that fossil fuels are the future, not green energy?

DAN CONANT: Well, I think the rest of the world would disagree with that.

We're seeing the explosion in solar and wind and even renewed interest in nuclear around the country.

So solar and wind are not going anywhere.

What this is instead doing is dialing back our ambitions as a country.

And it's really going to be hurting all the factories that have been popping up.

We - - by hurting demand for their products.

We get our panels from Georgia.

We get our electronic control systems from South Carolina.

We get our racking systems from Ohio.

All of the projects that we're putting in are being made in America.

And by dialing back demand for these types of projects just after we incentivized all these factories to come on the line is just -- it's just jerking around the industry for no good reason.

GEOFF BENNETT: Dan Conant, founder of Solar Holler, thanks for being here.

We appreciate it.

DAN CONANT: Thanks for having me.