THE federal government has given generously to the clean energy industry over the past few years, funneling billions of dollars in grants, loans and tax breaks to renewable power sources like wind and solar, biofuels and electric vehicles.

During the recession, it was one of the few sectors to add jobs. Costs of wind turbines and solar cells have fallen over the past five years, electricity from renewables has more than doubled, construction is under way on the country’s first new nuclear power plant in decades. And the US remains an important player in the global clean energy market.

Yet this productive relationship is in peril, mainly because federal funding is about to drop off a cliff and the Republican wrecking crew in the House remains generally hostile to programs that threaten the hegemony of the oil and gas interests. The clean energy incentives provided by President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill are coming to an end, while other longer-standing subsidies are expiring. If nothing changes, clean energy funding will drop from a peak of $44.3 billion in 2009 to $16 billion this year and $11billion in 2014 – a 75 percent decline.

The tax credit is scheduled to expire at the end of this year, with potentially disastrous results: a 75 percent reduction in new investment and a significant drop in jobs. That is just about what happened the last time the credit was allowed to lapse, at the end of 2003.

The idea is not to prop up clean tech industries forever. It is to get them to a point where they can stand on their own – an old-fashioned notion that, one would hope, might appeal even to House Republicans.