US President Trump Makes Renewable Energy Great Again

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With the launch of a full scale attack on Iran over the weekend, US President Donald Trump has engineered a trifecta of modern Republican presidents to launch a major war in the Middle East, disrupting global supply chains, sending the price of oil through the roof, and leaving US consumers to hold the bag — while making the case for renewable energy stronger than ever. Of course, the first two times around renewables failed to stick. Today, however, wind and solar are firmly in the mainstream, and they have nowhere to go but up.

Same Old War, Brand New Technology

Presidential ties to the oil industry are nothing new, nor is their habit of launching major wars in the Middle East over the past 35 years. George H.W. Bush launched “Desert Storm” to force Iraq out of Kuwait in 1991, and his son George W. Bush struck Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, ostensibly for their connection to the 9/11 terror bombings in New York and Washington, DC, though most of the attackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia.

Now here we go again, only this time the target is Iran. Two days into the war, energy analysts are already anticipating a double-digit increase in US gas prices at the pump, on top of a 17% uptick since January on account of Trump’s saber-rattling.

This time around, though, the renewable energy scenario is levels beyond the 1990s and early 2000s. Wind turbines and solar panels are far more efficient than they were back in the 20th century and early 21st century. Concurrent advances in electrification technology, particularly in the case of heat pumps, have also helped to support more wind and solar on the grid.

In addition, today’s distributed energy storage and grid technologies are also worlds away from the 20th century model of centralized power plants and one-way consumption. The rising virtual power plant movement has made electricity demand a two-way street, enabling ratepayers to interconnect with distributed energy resources including EV charging stations, household batteries and hot water heaters as well as thermostats and rooftop solar panels.

The Electric Vehicle Factor

Speaking of EVs, back in the 1990s, drivers in search of relief from high gas prices could walk, bike, carpool, or use mass transit, but they couldn’t buy an electric car. Leasing one of the few General Motors EV-1 sedans available in California was the only other option until battery technology improved. During the tenure of former President Barack Obama, the federal government pouring serious money into an effort to bring costs down, including the famous loan guarantee to Tesla (yeah, that guy). By the time former President Joe Biden took office in 2021, EVs were becoming a mainstream part of the domestic auto industry.

With Biden’s support, Congress kept the momentum going with a $7,500 EV tax credit authorized in 2022. Too bad Trump and his Republican allies in Congress killed it just three years later. They eliminated the tax credit as of September 30 last year, leading to a steep slide in domestic EV sales at the end of 2025.

Readers, if you’re thinking that now would be a good time to buy an EV, tax credit or not, drop a note in the discussion thread. Although EV sales in the US hit a major speed bump after the tax credit expired by some measures the damage was limited, and some automakers are eager to pick up where others left off. Keep an eye on Toyota, which is launching its new all-electric C-HR crossover in the US this month alongside a home EV charging partnership with the US firm Treehouse.

Next Steps For Renewable Energy In The US

Trump has done some serious damage to the US renewable energy profile. However, signs of persistence continue to, well, persist, particularly in the case of solar energy, which continues to dominate utility-scale capacity additions. In addition, as of last October the nation’s growing stockpile of small-scale distributed solar arrays clocked more than 58 gigawatts with nowhere to go but up.

Trump’s political seams are also beginning to show in the solar area, as he attempts to mollify Republican governors who are depending on renewable energy to attract data centers and other growing industries. Earlier this year, for example, word leaked out that several utility-scale solar power plants in Nevada could be back in motion, following a lobbying session between Trump and the state’s Republican Governor, Joe Lombardo, who is facing a tough re-election fight this year.

Some interesting wind energy movement is also afoot among Republican-led states. Over the weekend, the news organization Cowboy State Daily took note of the 87-turbine, 300-megawatt Phillip Wind Project taking shape in South Dakota. State regulators recently greenlit the project, billed as the largest wind farm in the state. Construction is set to begin in June.

Cowboy State also noted that the much larger Chokecherry & Sierra Madre Wind Project is back on track. Located in the neighboring deep-red state of Wyoming, CCSM clocks in at 600 turbines and 3,550 megawatts. Initial work on the wind farm began in 2016 and continued through Trump’s first term in office. There was a delay somewhere along the way, but the wheels are in motion again.

More Renewable Energy For The USA

Trump’s best chance of monkey-wrenching the renewable energy transition is in the offshore wind area, where the federal government controls offshore lease areas through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in the Interior Department. Even there, Trump has failed to stop the march of technology.

On December 8, a federal judge affirmed that a president can stop issuing new offshore leases, but the same judge declared that interfering with existing leases is a no-go, raising expectations that projects in the planning stages can continue to move forward.

Trump retaliated on December 22 by issuing an “emergency” stop-work order against five Atlantic Coast wind farms that were already deep into the construction phase, only to lose the attempt in court. All five offshore wind projects are now back on track. Additionally, Massachusetts has launched a collaboration with Nova Scotia, aimed at delivering offshore wind from Canada to New England.

That’s just wind and solar. The US geothermal energy is also beginning to flex its gigawatt-scale muscles, too, curiously enough with the full support of the Trump administration (or not so curious, as the case may be).

Against this backdrop, Trump decides to launch yet another war to upset the global petroleum applecart. The law of unintended consequences is working against him this time around, in more ways than one.

The anti-war faction of Trump’s MAGA cult is burning white-hot with rage over the naked betrayal of a campaign promise (shocker, I know), the anti-pedophile wing of his MAGA base is a little upset, too, and Republican-dominated communities around the US are finally beginning to revolt against his immigration policy. After all, who wants a concentration camp in their backyard?

In the latest development, even the anti-abortion cookie has began to crumble as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops weighs in. Hold on to your hats…

Photo: The renewable energy transition is well under way in the US, coloring the political consequences of Trump’s attack on the oil-producing nation of Iran (courtesy of Dennis Schroeder/NREL).