Are you one of 90,000 music fans heading to the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival later this month? If so, be sure to skip the light rail.

All 13 of the Green Line’s St. Paul stations — from Raymond Avenue to the stop outside Union Depot in Lowertown — will be offline for maintenance from late on the night of July 11 to early on the morning of July 21, dates that overlap with the three-day music festival at Harriet Island Regional Park.

The unusual nine-day closure will allow Metro Transit to replace worn track and perform other routine track work in the corridor, as well as conduct concrete work on the Cedar Street bridge.

Word of the closure took the St. Paul mayor’s office by surprise this week, drawing some consternation inside City Hall and a flurry of calls from Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher to Metropolitan Council Regional Administrator Ryan O’Connor, who was previously the county manager for Ramsey County. Tincher met with Met Council and Metro Transit officials around 2 p.m. Thursday for some tense talk, but the mayor’s office had no immediate changes to announce afterward to the maintenance schedule that was posted this week on Metro Transit’s website.

“We just found out this week along with everybody else,” said Emily Buss, a spokesperson for St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s office, as the meeting unfolded.

Tincher “called him right away and was like, ‘What’s going on here? You guys have known about this event for months now.’ We’ve been communicating with the Met Council since January saying, ‘Hey, this is coming up,’” Buss said. “I guess they decided routine maintenance had to happen right now.”

The closure coincides with two Minnesota United home games at Allianz Field — 7:30 p.m. July 12, versus the San Jose Quakes, and 7:30 p.m. July 16, versus the Los Angeles FC — as well as the three-day Yacht Club festival, which runs from July 18-20 at Harriet Island Regional Park. Some 30,000 fans are expected to attend each day of the festival, which brings together 30 bands, including widely-recognized acts like Hozier, Sheryl Crow, Weezer, Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Sublime.

How do you get 90,000 people to Harriet Island without the light rail? Metro Transit will offer bus alternatives, but details have yet to be announced.

This will be the second consecutive year of the Yacht Club Festival at Harriet Island, which hadn’t hosted marquee acts since the River’s Edge Music Festival in 2012.

St. Paul City Council President Rebecca Noecker was surprised to be informed Thursday that the Green Line would be offline in St. Paul for the entirety of the festival.

“That’s really concerning. We obviously need all of our partners pulling together when we’re doing something as significant as the Yacht Club Festival,” said Noecker, who took in the shows with her family a year ago. “We went both days last year and it was incredible. I’ve never seen Harriet Island so full. You couldn’t see the grass, which is the way it should be in that space.”

A reporter’s calls to Metro Transit were not returned Thursday morning.

Kathryn Kovalenko contributed to this report.

Related Articles

Man charged with having machete outside St. Paul school gets probation

Block-length July 4 parade continues on Portland Avenue in St. Paul

Letters: Is the law sacred, or is it only sacred when it suits a political agenda?

14-year-old who died in scooter crash with vehicle ID’d as St. Paul resident

Disabled American Veterans of Minnesota marks 100 years with time capsule

By ALEXA ST. JOHN

Congress passed a massive tax and spending cuts package Thursday that curbs billions of dollars in spending across clean energy. That means people will be paying a lot more for home solar, energy efficiency and other green technologies — and the nation’s efforts to address climate change just got a lot more challenging.

The bill that awaits President Donald Trump’s signature supports mining, drilling and production of the oil, coal and gas that are largely driving Earth’s warming and the increasingly deadly and costly extreme weather that comes with it. Producing and burning these fossil fuels also contributes to air pollution and human health problems.

At the same time, the bill slashes tax credits for clean technologies including wind and solar energy. That will likely mean delay or cancellation of countless projects, affecting thousands of jobs and driving up household energy costs.

Here are four things to know about what the bill means for clean energy:

FILE – Theodore Tanczuk, left, and Brayan Santos, right, of solar installer YellowLite, put panels on the roof of a home in Lakewood, Ohio, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

Cuts to home energy credits will make updates more costly

The climate law passed during former President Joe Biden’s term included tax credits for systems and projects at home — like solar and batteries — that save homeowners money over time and significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions.

These systems have gotten cheaper over the years but they’re still hefty upfront expenses that some homeowners would struggle to absorb without the credits. An average rooftop solar installation can run $20,000 or more; the credit has covered almost one-third of that. An average heat pump typically costs several thousand dollars; the tax credit reimbursed up to 30% of the cost, or $2,000.

The U.S. Treasury Department said more than 2 million families claimed more than $2 billion of the credit for upgrades such as windows, insulation, heating and cooling systems in tax year 2023 returns. More than 1.2 million families claimed more than $6 billion in the credit for solar installations, solar water heating, geothermal heat pumps and battery storage and other improvements that same year.

The bill ends both tax credits at the end of this year.

“No one asked Congress to make their energy bills even higher,” said Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, a nonprofit that advocates for cutting energy waste. “Taking away incentives for energy-saving improvements would raise monthly bills for families and businesses.”

But Republican lawmakers hailed the measure. Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said it helps unleash American energy and will save taxpayers money.

“Extending good tax policy, delivering targeted relief and reining in wasteful spending is the best way to restore economic prosperity and opportunity for all Americans,” he said.

FILE – Electric vehicles charge at an Electrify America station in Arcadia, Calif., May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Electric vehicle credits disappear

The bill eliminates credits of up to $7,500 for buyers of new electric vehicles and up to $4,000 for buyers of used EVs.

That’s likely to hurt the growth of a technology that is seen as critical to cutting down on a big source of Earth’s warming. Transportation is the largest single source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions — 28% in 2022, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

EV sales have grown steadily, making up about 8% of new car sales in the U.S. last year, according to Motorintelligence.com. Biden had set a target for half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2030.

But that purchase may be harder for consumers to swallow without a credit. EVs sold for an average of $57,734 in May, while new vehicles overall sold at an average of $48,799, according to Kelley Blue Book.

The credits go away after Sept. 30.

FILE – Wind turbines are visible along Route 176 as vehicles travel eastbound Feb. 24, 2025, in Andrews, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

Big wind and solar projects will struggle to qualify for tax credits

For large-scale wind and solar, the bill speeds up the timelines projects must meet to qualify for a tax credit. The industry says it will be nearly impossible for many projects to meet those accelerated timelines, putting massive projects from Colorado to Texas to Arizona at risk.

The bill allows a full tax credit for wind and solar developments that start construction within a year of the law’s enactment. But projects that begin more than a year after the bill’s passage have to be operational by the end of 2027 or they won’t get a credit.

Related Articles

Supreme Court clears way for deportation to South Sudan of several immigrants with no ties there

Takeaways as Congress sends tax and spending cuts bill to Trump’s desk

EPA puts on leave 139 employees who spoke out against policies under Trump

Medicaid, food aid recipients worry about safety net cuts in bill sent to Trump

Watch: Hakeem Jeffries took his ‘sweet time’ holding the floor to delay Trump’s tax bill

Atlas Public Policy, a policy consultancy, said roughly 28 gigawatts of wind and solar projects are planned to be operational after the start of 2028 but haven’t begun construction yet. Under the bill, they’re unlikely to qualify for a credit.

Wind provides about 10% of the electricity generated in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, with a goal of 20% by 2030. Solar is at about 4%, with the industry’s target at one point to reach 30% by the end of the decade.

Clean energy advocates, developers and investors say wind and solar are crucial for the nation’s renewables ambitions, and tax credits help to make them viable. But Trump has pulled the U.S. out of the Paris agreement, which calls on signatories to try to keep global temperatures from warming 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.

Instead, the bill supports traditional fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal, as well as nuclear power. Proponents say it will increase reliability since the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine.

“Americans need reliable and affordable energy, wasteful spending needs to be cut, and our country needs to be able to build again,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va, applauding the bill.

FILE – An electric vehicle charges at a station May 22, 2025, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Experts say watch out for higher energy prices

But others say Americans can expect to see higher utility bills. That’s unwelcome news at a time when the nation’s growth in data centers, driven by demand for artificial intelligence, are sending energy use higher, and when climate change is fueling more frequent extreme weather.

Nonpartisan and energy groups estimate the bill’s passage could increase average annual electricity costs by more than $100 per household by next year. If fewer solar and wind projects are added to the grid because there is less incentive and it is too expensive for developers to do so without credits, some states could see increases of more than $200.

“At a time when energy demand is surging and families are already struggling to make ends meet, this bill would raise costs, make the grid less reliable, and make the U.S. more dependent on foreign oil,” said Lori Lodes, executive director of climate action advocacy group Climate Power. “It threatens our power supply just as extreme weather and record demand are putting historic strain on the grid, forcing brownouts and blackouts across the country.”

The loss of tax credits might not immediately impact project plans. But increased uncertainty makes it more difficult to invest in innovative new technologies and maintain national security.

Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has passed the massive tax and spending cuts package that President Donald Trump calls “beautiful,” getting it to his desk a day before the July 4 deadline that he had set.

Related Articles

EPA puts on leave 139 employees who spoke out against policies under Trump

Medicaid, food aid recipients worry about safety net cuts in bill sent to Trump

Watch: Hakeem Jeffries took his ‘sweet time’ holding the floor to delay Trump’s tax bill

First immigration detainees arrive at Florida center in the Everglades

Melania Trump meets with patients, visits garden at Washington children’s hospital

The 887-page bill includes spending cuts, tax breaks, military spending, money for deportations and other longtime GOP priorities like cuts to Medicaid and renewable energy programs. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that under the bill 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 and 3 million more would not qualify for food stamps, also known as SNAP benefits.

Some takeaways from Trump’s “big beautiful bill” and the path Republicans took to pass it:

Loyalty to Trump carries the day

By Congress time standards, the bill moved at lightning speed — reaching Trump’s desk less than six months into his term. That was only possible because Trump set a firm deadline, July 4 and pressured Republican lawmakers to get it done.

Few were left to resist, as most of Trump’s Republican critics over the years have either retired or lost reelection. Unfailingly loyal House and Senate Republicans were quick to make his priority their priority.

Plus, GOP lawmakers know they would suffer political consequences for dissent. One senator who did, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, abruptly announced on Sunday that he would retire next year — a day after saying he would oppose the legislation because of its reductions to health care programs.

“Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER,” Trump had posted on X of Tillis.

Tillis joined Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky in voting against the bill in the Senate. In the House, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Thomas Massie of Kentucky were the only Republicans to vote against it.

Massie has also faced Trump’s wrath. “Massie is weak, ineffective, and votes “NO” on virtually everything put before him,” Trump posted last month.

‘Trifecta’ for the win

The legislation’s passage was a direct outgrowth of the GOP election sweep that gave them the White House and majorities in both the House and the Senate. The so-called “trifecta” of power only comes around every so often, and Republicans were determined that it not go to waste.

Crucially, holding power in both chambers of Congress gave Republicans the option of using a budget procedure that overrides the Senate filibuster and allows the majority to pass legislation with only 51 votes. That meant no Democratic support was needed and they never had to involve them in the process.

Both parties have used the budget procedure to pass priorities over the years when they have found themselves with a similar trifecta — Democrats to pass the Affordable Care Act under President Barack Obama in 2010, Republicans to pass tax cuts in 2017 during Trump’s first term and Democrats again to pass President Joe Biden’s climate, health care and tax package in 2022.

Thune and Johnson get it done for Trump

The bill was a major test for both House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., both of whom had very narrow majorities to navigate and wanted to show Trump that they could get his legislation passed.

The two initially disagreed on how to move forward — Johnson wanted one bill, Thune wanted two — but they eventually agreed and worked together with Trump to push the bill through each difficult step and win enough votes.

Whatever it takes to get the votes

As Trump pressured the GOP leaders for a big July 4 win, he appeared to be mostly flexible when it came to what was actually in the bill. So Johnson and Thune worked to get the votes by listening to members across the ideological spectrum and adjusting the legislation as needed to ensure that they kept nearly every single Republican on board.

To get that much support, the leaders packed the bill with personal priorities for some of their most skeptical members. House Republicans from New York won a higher cap on state and local tax deductions. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley won long-sought money for those impacted by nuclear development and testing. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski won several provisions to help her sprawling state, including carve-outs for Medicaid and food stamps.

Murkowski was the last holdout in the Senate, and Thune set votes in motion within hours of her commitment to support it.

“Failure is not an option,” he said a month ago. “We’ve got to get to 51.”

Democrats bet big on disapproval

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., have kept up a steady opposition to the legislation and believe that its Medicaid and food stamp cuts could win them new seats, and perhaps a majority, in next year’s midterm elections.

“This vote will haunt our Republican colleagues for years to come,” Schumer said after the Senate passed the bill. “Because of this bill, tens of millions will lose health insurance. Millions of jobs will disappear. People will get sick and die.”

Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz posted on X Wednesday evening that “it is entirely possible that we win the Senate” if the bill passes.

“I hope this bill dies, but if it passes they will pay a steep political price,” Schatz wrote.

Delay, Delay, Delay

With no power to stop the bill, Democrats embraced the powers they did have and forced long delays as Republicans neared passage.

Jeffries tied up the House floor for almost nine hours just as Republicans secured the votes, delaying their big win — and members’ flights out of town for the July 4 holiday — with a speech criticizing the bill and sharing stories of people who would be affected by cuts to Medicaid and other programs. “This is not who we are,” Jeffries said.

Schumer delayed Senate passage as well, forcing Senate clerks to read the entire 887-page bill, a step in the process that leaders usually agree to skip. It took almost 16 hours.

Debt ceiling fight is averted

One huge win for Republicans is that the bill increases the nation’s debt limit by $5 trillion to allow continued borrowing to pay already accrued bills. By adding that provision, Republicans avoided risking a U.S. default and also having to pass the debt limit increase separately, a move that would have required 60 votes in the Senate and Democratic support for passage.

The last time Congress raised the debt limit was 2023, after weeks of high-wire negotiations between the Republican House, the Democratic Senate and President Biden.

Starting at no, ending at yes

Many Republicans had deep concerns about the bill. Almost every one of them voted for it anyway.

Hawley and Murkowski strongly criticized the Medicaid cuts, but voted for the legislation when some of their state priorities were added. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson had once called the legislation “immoral” and “grotesque,” arguing that it would raise deficits. But he also voted for it.

New York lawmakers fought for quadrupling the cap on the state and local tax deduction to $40,000 in the House-passed bill and were unhappy when the Senate went along with that for just five years instead of 10 years. But, in the end, they accepted the change.

“I can’t be a yes on that,” Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., said. But when the roll was called, he was.

No ‘John McCain moment’

The late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., famously killed Trump’s attempt to repeal Obamacare when he became the deciding vote with a thumbs down in 2017. With narrow margins in both chambers, any Republican could have similarly killed this effort.

Murkowski, who, like McCain, voted against the Republican health care effort in 2017, was the only undecided senator left in the final hours before the Senate vote. But she ultimately supported it, a decision she called “agonizing.”

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

By MELINA WALLING

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday put on administrative leave 139 employees who signed a “declaration of dissent” with its policies, accusing them of “unlawfully undermining” the Trump administration’s agenda.

Related Articles

Medicaid, food aid recipients worry about safety net cuts in bill sent to Trump

Watch: Hakeem Jeffries took his ‘sweet time’ holding the floor to delay Trump’s tax bill

First immigration detainees arrive at Florida center in the Everglades

Melania Trump meets with patients, visits garden at Washington children’s hospital

Has ICE ‘gone too far’ in enforcing immigration laws? Here’s what a poll found

In a letter made public Monday, the employees wrote that the agency is no longer living up to its mission to protect human health and the environment. The letter represented rare public criticism from agency employees who knew they could face blowback for speaking out against a weakening of funding and federal support for climate, environmental and health science.

In a statement Thursday, the EPA said it has a “zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging and undercutting” the Trump administration’s agenda.

Employees were notified that they had been placed in a “temporary, non-duty, paid status” for the next two weeks, pending an “administrative investigation,” according to a copy of the email obtained by The Associated Press. “It is important that you understand that this is not a disciplinary action,” the email read.

More than 170 EPA employees put their names to the document, with about 100 more signing anonymously out of fear of retaliation, according to Jeremy Berg, a former editor-in-chief of Science magazine who is not an EPA employee but was among non-EPA scientists or academics to also sign.

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health made a similar move earlier in June, but Berg said he was unaware of any at NIH who have been placed on similar administrative leave.

Under Administrator Lee Zeldin, EPA has cut funding for environmental improvements in minority communities, vowed to roll back federal regulations that lower air pollution in national parks and tribal reservations, wants to undo a ban on a type of asbestos and proposed repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas.

Zeldin began reorganizing the EPA’s research and development office as part of his push to slash its budget and gut its study of climate change and environmental justice. And he’s seeking to roll back pollution rules that an AP examination found were estimated to save 30,000 lives and $275 billion every year.

The EPA responded to the employees’ letter earlier this week by saying policy decisions “are a result of a process where Administrator Zeldin is briefed on the latest research and science by EPA’s career professionals, and the vast majority who are consummate professionals who take pride in the work this agency does day in and day out.”

Follow Melina Walling on X @MelinaWalling and Bluesky @melinawalling.bsky.social.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.