Six Ways President Is Blocking Green Power

President Donald Trump wants to stick solar power where the sun don’t shine.

The real-estate mogul turned authoritarian president has long railed against green energy — with a notorious enmity toward windmills, which he bizarrely blames for whale mania and for ruining the offshore vibes of his Scottish golf course.

But Trump also governs like a reactionary when it comes to electricity generated by the sun, renewable power that has exploded in popularity — particularly in red America. Of the top 10 states with the most solar installed last quarter, eight were states Trump won, ranging from Texas to Idaho to Pennsylvania.

Why does Trump hate solar? 

The impulse appears to be driven in equal parts by a desire to trash Joe Biden’s legacy, in particular the Inflation Reduction Act, which spurred record green investment. Trump is also transparently seeking to boost the profits of fossil fuel producers, including from methane, oil and coal. (Trump really has a kink for coal). The industry backed Trump’s candidacy to the hilt, and the president is now paying them back — with a crusade for dirty-energy “dominance.”

Trump’s war against solar is happening at a moment when server farms and data centers — including those inflating an artificial intelligence bubble — are spiking demand for electricity, spiking inflation in electricity costs. 

Trump is also acting to hobble solar energy even as the world reels from the impacts of carbon-boosted warming, like megafires, superstorms, and deadly heatwaves. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is attempting to make climate denial official policy, with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) poised to jettison the “endangerment” finding that has enabled the federal government to regulate greenhouse pollution as a threat to human health.

Below a survey of the steps Trump is taking to cast a shadow over solar energy development:

Revoking Solar Tax Credit for Home Owners

Trump has succeeded, through his mega tax-cut-and-spend legislation known as the Big Beautiful Bill, in dismantling key features of the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided Americans with generous incentives to adopt clean power.

For homeowners, that included a federal tax credit covering 30 percent of the cost of rooftop home solar installations, typically defraying about $9,000 of the upfront investment. Under Biden’s legislation, that tax credit was funded through 2034. But Trump’s BBB abruptly nixes the credit at the close of this year. (Homeowners looking to take advantage of the credit should act quickly; new systems need to be online before the dawn of 2026.)

Pulling Federal Support From Solar Manufacturers

Biden’s strategy of green energy investment was about more than lowering carbon emissions — it was about reviving America’s industrial base. In 2022, Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to boost the domestic solar production. Adopted during the Cold War, the DPA was intended to ensure that American industry could produce “technology items essential to the national defense.” 

Biden’s order put the Department of Energy to work backing domestic solar manufacturers. Jennifer Granholm, then the Energy Secretary, touted that the investment would “increase national security, promote energy independence, help to address the urgent threat of climate change, and drive down energy costs for American consumers.”

But this March, Trump revoked that authority — with his own executive order, blasting Biden’s use of the DPA as a “Green New Scam” while decrying his predecessor’s “mandates for… solar panels.”

Blocking Solar Development on Federal Land

Trump plucked his Interior Secretary from the governor’s mansion of the petrostate of North Dakota. And Doug Bugum has continued to boost the drill-baby-drill contingent with land-use restrictions that only fossil fuel lobbyists could love. 

On August 1, Burgum unveiled new guidelines to block solar (as well as wind) development on federal lands, on the basis of a measurement of “capacity density” — or how many megawatts of energy is delivered by each acre developed.

Solar and wind projects are, by nature of the technology, distributed; they require a significant amount of surface area to produce meaningful amounts of power. The Trump administration is suddenly acting as though federal land is in scarce supply and must be jealously defended against green energy land grabs. (This is the same administration that wanted to sell off five percent of federal land for vacation home and golf course development under the Big Beautiful Bill.)

Burgum’s order clarifies that the Interior Department manages a vast portfolio of land — 245 million acres with an additional 3 billion acres of the continental shelf offshore. But it argues — “based on common sense, arithmetic, and physics” — that because fossil fuel facilities can deliver more energy bang for the acre buck that “wind and solar projects are highly inefficient uses of federal lands.”

Burgum even advances an argument that green energy projects could be illegal, alleging that the “disproportionate land use” of renewable power begs “the question on whether the use of federal lands for any wind and solar projects is consistent with the law.” 

Unveiling the order, Burgum claimed that “gargantuan, unreliable, intermittent energy projects hold America back from achieving U.S. energy dominance,” insisting they also create a heavy burden for “the American taxpayer and environment.”

‘Pulling the Rug’ on a GOP Deal

The Burgum ban on solar development came in the wake of a Trump executive order titled: “ENDING MARKET DISTORTING SUBSIDIES FOR UNRELIABLE, FOREIGN CONTROLLED ENERGY SOURCES.”

In that order, Trump called for an immediate halt of all federal tax support for clean energy projects. “For too long, the federal government has forced American taxpayers to subsidize expensive and unreliable energy sources like wind and solar,” the order states. It calls on the Treasury Department to “strictly enforce the termination of the clean electricity production and investment tax credits… for wind and solar facilities.”

Not unlike the subsidies for homeowners, these are generous tax credits for utility scale green energy projects. The Trump rush order is being interpreted as an attempt to scuttle an important concession secured by Republicans in the Senate to slow the phase-out of tax credits under Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. 

The deal secured a one-year grace period for projects already in the pipeline to begin construction and still qualify for the incentives. One of the negotiators, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), told the Anchorage Daily News that Trump’s order “just pulls the rug out from underneath the deal,” calling it “a total affront to what we had negotiated.” Murkowski was the key vote needed to pass the Big Beautiful Bill. 

The dealmakers are not taking the kick in the teeth lightly. Two GOP senators, Charles Grassley of Iowa and John Curtis of Utah, have placed holds on Trump nominations for key Treasury roles in an effort to get the White House to stand down and honor his law. 

Taxing Panel Imports

Trump’s war on solar is not new. He got his licks in against solar panels in his first term imposing steep tariffs on panels imported from China. (This is one area of policy where the Biden administration ultimately aligned with Trump, imposing even higher tariffs to help boost domestic solar manufacturers.)

Such protectionism — many environmentalists and economists argue — is self-defeating. First, the dire risks from global warming demand proliferation of green power as quickly as possible. Second, the manufacture of solar panels does little for American jobs, while legions of installers and electricians gain employment when panels are cheap. (A new study finds the original Trump trade distortions cost American consumers billions through 2020.)

Trump’s latest economic disruptions, imposing indiscriminate country-based tariffs are already causing new problems for the solar economy, according to the industry’s trade association, which warns of “supply chain shifts and potential project delays or cancellations, particularly in the utility-scale segment.”

Clawing Back Solar for Non-Rich Folks

The Trump administration is reportedly continuing its quest to claw back already-appropriated funds for clean energy programs. 

New on the target list is $7 billion in funding for a program called Solar For All, administered by the EPA. The program is meant to invest in “community solar” projects — small-scale, off-site solar installations that allow renters to purchase solar power — as well as to offer low- or no-cost panels to lower income homeowners. Solar For All is intended to serve 900,000 people and reduce their energy costs by $350 million a year.

According to The New York Times, the agency is drafting letters to cancel grants to 60 states and tribal authorities. Green groups are promising to fight any rollback in court.