“What we’ve seen is that the IRA, in particular, has a lot of those tax incentives, grants, other kinds of tools; they are really embedded in our society, all parts of our country, the so-called red states and blue states and purple states are all benefiting from those investments,” Turk told ET in an interview during his recent India visit. “And so, the thought that politicians of any stripe will repeal something that’s causing such an economic boom for their communities just seems fanciful to me.”
IRA is an important US election issue, with US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pledging to rescind any “unspent” funds under the IRA should he be elected in November.
Turk said the “leadership does matter” but the outcome of the presidential election is unlikely to stall the clean energy progress the IRA has triggered.
Many Indian companies are also investing in the US, taking advantage of the IRA tax incentives, Turk said, without naming the companies.
India and the US have discussed the issue of sanctions on Venezuela, which has impeded state-run ONGC’s efforts to repatriate dividends from the South American nation in the middle of political turmoil. “We’ve had conversations with our counterparts even during this visit on those issues, and we’ll work through those issues,” Turk said. “But there are also norms of democracy that our two countries and our two societies share. And those are incredibly important values as well. So, we’ve got to take all that into account.”Turk defended the use of economic sanctions as a foreign policy tool against energy-rich nations like Russia, Venezuela, and Iran. “When you have such a barbaric illegal invasion, you look for whatever tools you’ve got in order to try to blunt that impact, to send strong messages,” he said.The G7 countries set a price cap on Russian oil exports to punish Moscow after the Ukraine invasion. But most of the Russian oil has since sold above the cap.
“The price cap, I think, has worked,” said Turk, adding that the cap has helped India and other buyers to get a significant price discount on Russian oil. The cap has helped meet two objectives of keeping Russian oil flowing to the global market while limiting the revenues to Moscow, he said.
The US and India have a “shared interest” in keeping oil prices and supplies stable, Turk said. “We’ve seen prices go down over the last several weeks… and we’re going to do everything we possibly can on behalf of American citizens,” he said.