Is America done with clean energy? Why wind, solar power are in peril

USA Today

14 hours ago

Since taking office, the Trump Administration has paused permits on all new wind and solar projects on public land, both onshore and offshore.
New wind and solar power installations, and the cheap, clean energy they provide to America, may not survive the Trump administration.
Building on public concerns and his own dislike of "ugly," "disgusting" wind turbines and "ridiculous" solar farms, President Donald Trump has issued a blizzard of directives and executive orders limiting new solar and wind projects across the county. In at least one case, the administration yanked back an already-issued permit.
Instead, the administration is promoting energy production from oil, natural gas and coal, which the Biden administration had made more expensive through regulations Trump is now dismantling.
'They're basically trying to make it impossible or next to impossible to build wind or solar power in this country while at the same time rolling back regulations on fossil fuels,' said Nick Krakoff, senior attorney with the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation, a nonprofit environmental organization.
Wind and solar power are two of the fastest-growing energy sectors in the United States and produced as much as 17% of the country's electricity last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the statistical agency of the Department of Energy.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has paused permits on all new wind and solar projects on public land, onshore and offshore.
The vast majority of renewable energy projects – 95% – are on private land, according to a report by the Brookings Institution. But many of those require some type of federal approval and are also being stalled by the new rules.
It's this push to end large-scale energy projects on private property as well that some in the energy industry consider especially troubling.
'It's expected that every time you have a major change in administrations, policies on public land might change," said Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association. 'But the willingness of this administration to create political and bureaucratic barriers to private economic activity on private land is something nobody anticipated.'
A shift that began Jan. 20
The dozens of new rules, mostly issued by the Department of the Interior, add multiple layers of permit requirements to an already thorough process – requirements that could slow or stymie some projects.
'It looks like they are just trying to find any moment at which the federal government interacts with a project and putting it on this list," said Michelle Solomon, manager of the electricity program at Energy Innovation, Policy and Technology, an energy think tank based in San Francisco.
The flood of new regulations began on Jan. 20 when the administration temporarily withdrew all permits for offshore wind projects. On July 7, all subsidies for wind and solar projects were ended, though federal subsidies for coal, oil and natural gas were left in place.
On July 15, the Department of the Interior added multiple layers of review for all wind and solar projects on public land, including a requirement that the secretary of the interior sign off on each one.
It was not clear whether these requirements will stop new projects from being permitted, but "at the very least it will slow decisions down – and a lot of the decisions are not controversial, they're routine,' Krakoff said.
On July 29, the department required wind or solar projects that have been approved but are being sued by opponents be federally reviewed and possibly canceled.
Nearly a third of solar projects and half of wind projects that completed Environmental Impact Statements faced lawsuits, according to research by Resources for the Future, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit research institute.
Targeting the renewable energy industry
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said in March that the administration's efforts "are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion."
The new rules will ensure that wind and solar projects "receive appropriate oversight when federal resources, permits or consultations are involved," Department of the Interior senior public affairs specialist Elizabeth Pease said in a statement emailed to USA TODAY.
The directives are already having an effect. On Aug. 6, the agency announced it was reversing a permit for a 1,000-megawatt wind facility that had been approved in Idaho.
'They're canceling meetings and taking down web pages," Grumet of American Clean Power said, adding that he sees the moves as "an unprecedented effort to weaponize bureaucracy to undermine an American industry."
In early August, Nevada's Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo complained to the secretary of the interior in a letter that solar projects deep in the project pipeline have been frozen.
'This is part of a pattern of targeting the renewable energy industry," said the Conservation Law Foundation's Krakoff. "It's pretty unprecedented to target an entire industry and undermine the rule of law."
Power demands are at an all-time high and rising
These actions could stop cold what has been the biggest contributor to U.S. power supplies at a time when power demands driven by global warming and the needs of artificial intelligence and data centers are pushing power consumption to all-time highs.
'We need to build more power generation now, and that includes renewable energy. The U.S. will need roughly 118 gigawatts (the equivalent of 12 New York Cities) of new power generation in the next four years to prevent price spikes and potential shortages," said Ray Long, CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy." Only a limited set of technologies – solar, wind, batteries and some natural gas – can be built at that scale in that time frame."
As of last year, 17% of electricity in the United States was created by wind or solar power. Of the new power generation projected to come online this year, 93% was expected to come from solar, wind or battery storage, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Solar power appears to be less impacted by the policy shifts than wind, Solomon said.
'Certainly the administration is seemingly trying to do everything they can to slow progress for wind and solar – but they don't have unilateral control over everything,' she said. 'I think there's a decent chance that there's a lot of projects on private land, at least solar projects, that will not have federal permitting requirements.'
China has overtaken the United States on clean energy
The shift comes as the rest of the world – especially China – make significant strides in moving to cheaper power from wind and solar.
"I don't think the administration fully appreciates that if they were to tie their own hands, we could be retreating in that competition with China," Grumet said.
China is installing wind and solar projects faster than any other nation and today has almost half the world's wind farms. In 2023 it built out more wind and solar than the rest of the world combined. In May, its solar power reached 1,000 gigawatts.
The United States' current solar capacity is 134 gigawatts. A 1 gigawatt solar facility generates enough power to support about 200,000 households, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
In the first quarter of this year, China was able to produce more energy through wind and solar than through coal and gas. As of July, the country made up 74% of all wind and solar projects under construction globally.
China's enormous buildout of wind and solar power caused its carbon emissions to fall by 2.7% in the first six months of this year. Some experts believe its greenhouse gas emissions may have peaked.
The country's combination of clean energy production along with the success of its electric vehicles has earned it the title of the world's first "electrostate." Fossil fuel-based nations are called "petrostates."
None of this bodes well for the future of the United States on the world stage, said Julio Friedmann, an expert on carbon, hydrogen and biofuels at Carbon Direct, a company that provides climate solutions.
"In all likelihood, the actions will strengthen China's position as global leader," said Friedmann, who also taught at Columbia University. "At worst, the U.S. may surrender its many advantages."