A few hundred years ago, homes were heated by peat bricks. Then wood came to the fore. Then coal, which was easier to haul, heated homes but also powered ships and railroads. But, it also produced quantities of soot that darkened the skies and the cities, and led to respiratory illness.
Then came oil. It’s cleaner than coal and enabled us to economically fly across the globe. Our ancestors could only dream of the “common man” being able to enjoy this privilege. But this source of power also has downsides in environmental degradation. Big picture: we all want to enjoy the best quality-of-life experience – and – achieve this outcome in a way that preserves our planet’s health; a win-win.
Politics tends to sway, like a pendulum. For a few decades, it swayed toward clean renewable ways to enjoy our lives. However, just as the makers of carriages and buggy whips tried to maintain their businesses, oil producers invested huge amounts to get politicians elected who support their cause. The pendulum is now swinging away from renewables. Comments afterwards.
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How Trump is targeting wind and
solar energy – and delighting big oil
Critics say Trump is using every presidential power possible against
clean power in sharp turn after Biden investments created jobs
Oliver Milman in New York
The Guardian
Mon 3 Feb 2025
For several years, Republicans accused Joe Biden of waging a “war on energy” even as the United States drilled more oil and gas than at any time in its history. Now, a more tangible assault is gathering pace under Donald Trump – aimed squarely at wind, solar and other cleaner forms of power.
In the first two weeks of his return as president, Trump has, like his first term, issued orders to open up more American land and waters for fossil fuel extraction and started the process to yank the US from the Paris climate agreement. “We will drill, baby drill,” said Trump, who has promised to cut energy and electricity prices in half within 18 months.
But Trump has this time also launched a blitzkrieg against renewable energy, with his department of interior temporarily suspending all clean energy development – but tellingly not oil and gas – on federal land.
Meanwhile an “energy emergency” declared by Trump mentions the need to bolster “crude oil, natural gas, lease condensates, natural gas liquids, refined petroleum products, uranium, coal” but not solar, wind or other clean energy technologies. Trump has said he would like to see “good clean coal”, the dirtiest of fossil fuels, meet the rising electricity demand from AI generation.
Trump has long disparaged wind energy, calling it “disgusting” and baselessly alleging turbines are the primary cause of whale and bird deaths, and his administration has now halted all federal approvals of onshore and offshore wind. The president recently told Fox News …
“We don’t want windmills in this country.
The wind blows and then it doesn’t blow,
the things cost a fortune, they are made in
China, they kill the birds, they’re horrible.”
He then expanded his attack to solar, the fastest-growing energy source in the US. Trump said …
“You know what people also don’t like,
those massive solar fields built over land
that cover 10 miles by 10 miles. I mean
they are ridiculous, the whole thing.”
Smaller-scale solar projects are also being suspended, with the new administration freezing $7bn in funding already awarded for community and rooftop solar in low-income communities.
This broad-fronted promotion of fossil fuels – the Trump administration has also started to reverse pollution standards for cars that encourage more electric sales, lifted a pause on gas exports and even floated the revival of the moribund Keystone XL oil pipeline – has delighted an industry that donated heavily to the president’s campaign. Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said …
“This is a new day for American energy.
We applaud president Trump for moving
swiftly to chart a new path where US oil and
natural gas are embraced, not restricted.”
But clean energy developers and climate advocates have been left stunned by the sharp turn against renewables. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator, said …
“From day one, Trump’s priority has been
rewarding his corrupt fossil fuel donors and
sabotaging America’s clean energy future.”
A White House spokeswoman did not answer questions as to the absence of renewables in this vision, instead pointing to a focus on “reversing the harmful and shortsighted policies of the previous administration”.
The last Trump administration similarly sought to champion fossil fuels but now there’s the “aggressive use of every imaginable presidential power” to favor them over renewables, according to Barry Rabe, an environmental policy expert at the University of Michigan. Rabe said …
“Renewables largely just get in the way
of these goals, the president sees no
advantage in pursuing them. The rhetoric
around wind energy isn’t new but it’s now par-
ticularly embittered. It’s really ratcheted up.”
Rabe said the vast support for clean energy in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed under Biden, “provides targets” that weren’t previously there for Trump to aim at. The president has called the bill “a giant scam” and has already paused its spending that aids renewables, electric cars and batteries produced in the US.
Renewable sources of power, including nuclear, generated a quarter of US electricity in 2024, a significant leap from when Trump was last in power. Wind and solar surpassed coal for the first time last year and are expected to dominate freshly-added capacity throughout 2025, with hundreds of thousands of new jobs turbocharged by the IRA’s tax credits.
However, the US still lags other countries, most notably in Europe and China, in deploying the renewables needed to avert the worst impacts of global heating and lessen the thousands of deaths and illnesses from fossil fuel air pollution. Analysts warn that political uncertainty risks undermining the required clean energy roll-out and that any removal of the tax credits would severely dampen growth. Paul Bledsoe, who was climate advisor to Bill Clinton’s White House, said …
“This is all driven by culture war politics –
Trump is attempting to strangle the US
clean energy miracle in its crib so he can
create a boogyman and be on top of a
political moment.
“It’s illogical because it destroys working
class jobs and allows China to eat America’s
lunch on clean energy. But as long as it meets
his culture war objectives he indulges it.”
Bledsoe said there will be “ferocious” lobbying in Washington over how much of the IRA to dismember, with Republicans faced with the choice of backing Trump or the clean energy investments overwhelmingly flowing to their, rather than Democratic, districts. The four leading states for wind energy generation – Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas – are also conservative bastions. Bledsoe said …
“Oil and gas production will be driven by
market circumstances but the real question
is whether Congress will listen to this bull-
shit on renewables. Republican members
know clean energy is a huge success story
and the question is whether they will fall
in line and repeal incentives because of this
culture war. That is the crux of it and it’s
unclear what will happen.”
For now, the beleaguered clean energy industry has been left to plead its case in Trumpian terms, arguing that Republican calls for “energy dominance” and an “all of the above” energy strategy can’t be achieved while cutting out renewables. Jason Grumet, chief executive of American Clean Power, a trade lobby group, said …
“No nation can achieve energy dominance
absent consistent policy that moves beyond the
idea that energy systems have partisan character.”
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While Mr. Trump refuses to make statements in which fact-checking is done, I’ll begin my comments with facts. First, repeating his statement,
“We don’t want windmills in this country.
The wind blows and then it doesn’t blow,
the things cost a fortune, they are made in
China, they kill the birds, they’re horrible.”
First, windmills used wind to grind grains. We now build wind machines.
Second, the huge blades are made in several countries, not just in China. I grew up in Detroit; several abandoned automobile factories – large clear-span spaces – were long ago converted to wind machine blade production.
Third, installing a wind machine does cost money, but so does installing a new oil well. The question is one of “return on investment.” Just as oil producers make those investments, others do the same to sell wind power.
Fourth, wind machines don’t kill birds. The biggest killer of birds are our glass-covered buildings. And like deer, birds fly in specific paths. Environmental firms ensure wind machines are not licensed in one of those paths.
And fifth, while aesthetics is personal, millions of tourists go to see windmills in Holland and other countries. And many businesses use wind machine photographs as logos on their stationery. Are offshore wind machines more unsightly than offshore drill rigs?
Other than for hydropower, renewables do have on-and-off periods. The key to achieving 100% with renewables is to generate more than what you need when that source generates power, and store the excess when that source is not active. The electric grid is one existing storage source; power utilities will buy that excess power. Another storage source: batteries. In fact, an e-car is essentially a giant battery with electric motors and tires.
In summary: As a representative of the oil industry that funded his election, I understand Mr. Trump’s stand. However, destroying Earth is not a viable option to enjoying a great quality-of-life experience. I also find that living with renewables has been a lot less expensive; instead of sending my money to oil producers, I invest it in more enjoyable quality-of-life experiences.
I encourage you to also stay the path; it’s up to each of us.
