ENERGY SECURITYTrump Is Trying to Kill Clean Energy. The Market Has Other Plans.
The administration’s moves have done real damage to the nation’s ability to fight climate change. But strong countervailing forces — including falling prices for renewables, surging demand for electricity, and aggressive campaigns by states and cities to slash emissions — continue to drive the transition to clean energy. The result is a growing tension between federal policy and market reality, but in many ways, renewables are unstoppable.
A year ago, Donald Trump assumed the presidency for a second time and immediately got to work dismantling the climate progress that Joe Biden’s administration had made. Among other sweeping efforts, the White House boosted fossil fuels over renewables, tried to stop states from reducing emissions and adapting to climate change, and paused wind projects despite rising demand for electricity. Later, in July, the administration succeeded in gutting the clean-tech incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, which among other things were meant to expand wind and solar. That landmark legislation was the most ambitious climate action the United States had ever taken.
Experts say the administration’s moves have done real damage to the nation’s ability to fight climate change. But they also stress that strong countervailing forces — including falling prices for renewables, surging demand for electricity, and aggressive campaigns by states and cities to slash emissions — continue to drive the transition to clean energy. The result is a growing tension between federal policy and market reality, one that is likely to define U.S. climate and energy outcomes for years to come.
“A lot of this will have mounting consequences in the time ahead,” said Julie McNamara, an associate policy director with the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “I still fundamentally believe that renewables will continue to be the thing that utilities across the country will be turning to, because they just make sense. But the administration is making that decision harder than it should be, costlier than it should be, and slower than it should be.”
Going green now makes better economic sense than fossil fuels. Look at Texas, which, despite being the nation’s largest oil producer, has embraced clean energy. Its many wind and solar operations generate far more renewable electricity than any other state — nearly double that of the next highest, California — because it’s a cheaper and more reliable way of juicing the grid. Indeed, over the past decade, the price of onshore wind has fallen 70 percent, solar panels by 90 percent, and batteries — essential for storing energy when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining — by even more than that.
