Disaster-Zone Tax Break Quietly Funnels Billions to Big Energy
S. 3605 — Disaster Zone Energy Affordability and Investment Act · Filed by Lindsey Graham (R-SC) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 8, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill allows businesses operating in federally or state-declared disaster zones (declared after 2023) to convert unused general business tax credits from prior years into transferable credits that can be sold or used immediately, rather than carried forward. The credits apply to business expenses incurred within two years of the disaster declaration and can be pooled across consolidated corporate groups.
Why we flagged it
The bill's functional purpose is to convert deferred tax credits into immediately usable or transferable assets for businesses in disaster zones, effectively accelerating tax relief and creating a secondary market for credits. This is a tax-code modification benefiting corporate taxpayers, not a disaster-relief or affordability measure.
What the text implies
- The bill allows tax credits to be 'transferred,' implying a secondary market where corporations can sell unused credits to other entities—a mechanism not explicitly detailed but embedded in the transferability language, potentially creating speculative trading in disaster-zone tax benefits.
- Consolidated corporate groups are treated as single taxpayers, allowing large multi-entity corporations to pool credits across subsidiaries and disaster zones, concentrating benefit among sophisticated corporate structures rather than small businesses.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
large utilities and energy companies with existing tax credits; consolidated corporate groups with multi-subsidiary structures; energy infrastructure firms operating in disaster-prone regions