Trump casts chill over US wind energy sector

Donald Trump has lengthy ranted in opposition to wind vitality—claiming generators are ugly, harmful to wildlife and too costly—with him threatening to upend a long time of business progress just some hours after resuming energy.

“We’re not going to do the wind thing,” Trump stated Monday as he returned to the Oval Workplace for the primary time in 4 years as commander-in-chief.

“Big, ugly windmills,” he stated as he signed a sequence of govt orders that has introduced the sector into disaster, including that “they kill your birds, and they ruin your beautiful landscape.”

Among the many measures had been a short lived freeze on federal allowing and loans for all offshore and onshore wind initiatives.

Jason Grumet, president of the American Clear Energy Affiliation (ACP), shortly slammed the transfer, saying it “increases bureaucratic barriers, undermining domestic energy development and harming American businesses and workers.”

After the bulletins, wind-related shares fell into the purple.

“It’s had a real cooling effect on the sector,” Elizabeth Wilson, an offshore wind specialist at Dartmouth College, informed AFP.

Battle-weary builders are already “backing away from some of these projects,” she stated.

Coming similtaneously he has declared a “national energy emergency,” some observers have famous a contradiction in Trump’s assault on wind vitality.

Although not as sturdy as in Europe, wind energy in 2023 accounted for some 10 p.c of US electrical energy manufacturing—greater than twice as a lot as photo voltaic.

Onshore wind energy can be comparatively cheap, in line with specialists, with the value per megawatt-hour starting from $27 to $73 in 2024, far lower than nuclear or coal—although charges may fluctuate sooner or later.

Ember, an vitality suppose tank, warned on Thursday that the US “risks being left behind in the clean industrial revolution” as main economies comparable to China are more and more “embracing wind as a source of cheap, clean electricity.”

It stays to be seen what the longterm results of Trump’s actions could have on the sector, which has already confronted struggles in the US lately resulting from rising prices from inflation and rates of interest, together with mounting native opposition to initiatives.

The offshore wind business, nonetheless in its infancy in the US, is prone to be the toughest hit, in line with Wilson, as the vast majority of exploitable marine areas are in federal waters topic to Trump’s measures.

Nonetheless, “a lot of the onshore improvement occurs on private lands the place the federal government does not actually have any management,” she added.

‘I do not need even one constructed’

Days earlier than taking workplace, Trump wrote on his Fact Social media platform: “I don’t want even one (windmill) built during my Administration.”

That pledge has critically spooked the sector, which is anxious he may completely block subsidies or the environmental approvals wanted for sure initiatives.

Such strikes would doubtless be challenged in court docket and immediate political backlash.

“Ninety-nine p.c of onshore wind energy initiatives are on personal lands, and the private landowners typically like these wind farmsthey usually get a number of financial profit from them,” stated Michigan Technological College professor emeritus Barry Solomon.

He famous that the initiatives are additionally largely in Republican-led states comparable to Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas and the Dakotas.

The ACP additionally warned that proscribing wind improvement would “increase consumer energy bills.”

Regardless of the headwinds, some specialists stay optimistic.

“Ultimately… the economics is driving the desire for wind and solar,” stated College of Delaware professor Jeremy Firestone.

With artificial intelligencehe added, vitality wants “are increasing a great deal. So there’s going to be a lot of pressure to continue to build out wind turbines.”

© 2025 AFP