Trump Pushes Harder To Kill Wind Energy In US

While the Trump Administration has opened federal land to oil drilling for its “drill, baby drill” initiatives and set financial arrangements to increase coal production, it has also taken numerous steps to shrink the footprint of green energy.

Among the actions taken by the president are an end to the $7,500 EV tax credit and the end of some residential solar projects. He has also blocked, temporarily in many cases, offshore wind projects. Last August, he closed down a project by Ørsted, a public company. According to The Guardian, “Shares dropped by 17% after a stop-work order on a $1.5bn project off Rhode Island, which was 80% complete.”

Some of the projects were restarted when the companies that run them took the administration to court. One example of this was the large Revolution Wind project. According to Politico, “A federal judge reversed a stop-work order imposed by the Interior Department last month, allowing Revolution Wind to resume construction. The $6.2 billion project serving Connecticut and Rhode Island was halted by the Trump administration over national security concerns.”

The Administration has created a new tactic. It began by buying out a wind project under construction by TotalEnergies, at a price of $1 billion. Use of this playbook is by no means over. The FT reports that, “The government’s strategy has shifted towards incentivising companies to give up their leases — some of which cost hundreds of millions of dollars — and instead pump those funds into fossil fuel projects. “  There are 43 projects in this category underway. That means ending them will be immensely expensive.

The question that has been repeatedly asked is how the electricity these projects would generate will be replaced. Not every oil company has jumped at the opportunity to increase production, even with federal government support. Exploration and drilling projects are expensive.

And, as oil prices rise due to the Iran war, the loss of wind may be probable