The clean energy sector is in the midst of reacting to President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Experts suggest that while his administration may slow the growth of renewable power infrastructure throughout the U.S., it will not be able to stop its proliferation altogether.
This is in part because the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, a key climate policy passed under the Biden administration, will be difficult to repeal, despite Republicans’ recently acquired control of the Senate.
Red states have actually received most of the jobs and economic impacts provided by the IRA, a trend which could lead some GOP lawmakers to preserve the decade’s worth of planned government subsidies for renewable projects that this legislation provides.
However, policy analysts say that absent a repeal of the IRA, Trump’s administration could still make it more difficult for the clean energy funding it calls for to be dispersed. This could potentially be done by cutting or restricting the budgets of the federal agencies that deliver IRA grants and loans.
Trump could also issue executive orders to reduce or place a moratorium on federal leasing areas for renewable projects, such as offshore wind.
Investors have already reacted to the potential policy changes, as clean energy stocks saw sharp declines following the election. Wind energy developers experienced a drop of up to 14%, while solar company shares fell by as much as 40%, underscoring market concerns about the future of federal support for renewables.
Trump campaign officials have stated that their energy agenda will diversify the nation’s power supply sources, reduce electricity costs and save taxpayers billions of dollars which would have been used to subsidize renewable projects.
Conversely, a report by the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation claims that Trump’s policies could increase household utility bills by a combined $32 billion and kill about 1.7 million clean energy jobs over time.
