Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump has managed to arrange several "worst of both worlds" situations for himself. And it's increasingly looking like renewable power is going to be one of the things on that list.
It's not a secret that Trump disdains most sources of renewable energy, particularly solar and wind. Is this because he's been bought and paid for by Big Oil? Is it because Barack Obama and Joe Biden were big on renewables, and Trump reflexively opposes anything they supported? Is it because someone built a wind farm next to his golf course in Scotland, and that hurt his fee-fees? Truth be told, we'd guess it's all of these things.
Still, Trump's efforts to slay the renewable beast, primarily by killing Biden-era funding for these technologies via executive order and the BBB, is not having a lot of success. Yes, he may have slowed things down, but he most certainly hasn't stopped the forward march of solar power, in particular. This week, the Energy Information Administration issued a report predicting that the U.S. will add 33 gigawatts of solar power capacity this year. If so, that would be a little over half the 65 gigawatts of power from all sources that will be deployed in 2025.
We've written it before, and we'll write it again, but the fundamental problem for Trump (and Big Oil) is that renewable sources are simply a smarter investment these days. Even now, they are competitive with (and sometimes even superior to) fossil fuels in terms of profitability. And then, on top of that, power-generating projects are built to be used on a timeline measured in decades. Most of the world, and one of the two major parties in the U.S., is moving towards eco-friendly energy sources. A major investment in a new oilfield or a new coal-burning plant could turn into a real turkey within a decade... or less.
Now, we said something about "worst of both worlds." Well, here's the other half of that. Trump has managed to slow development of renewables, which means he's managed to slow overall development of new energy sources. The problem is that demand for electricity is up, up, up, due to cryptocurrency mining, population growth and, in particular, the promulgation of AI. The dynamic here is so simple, even Peter Navarro should be capable of understanding it: There's going to be more demand for energy, and not enough supply, which means higher energy prices.
To be more precise, a new analysis from Energy Innovation, a nonpartisan energy and climate think tank, predicts that the failure of new supply to keep up with new demand will increase household energy prices by 18% over the next decade, or about $170 a year for the average household. Along with that, about 750,000 jobs will be lost by the failure to fully commit to renewables.
Trump cares little about what happens after January 20, 2029. But, with 3+ years left in his term, there's still much time for American families to at least start to feel the energy pinch. And that's in service of a political program that is doomed to failure, sooner or later. Meanwhile, add the energy costs to normal inflation and the effects of the trade wars, and things could actually get pretty ugly pretty fast for the President and his party. But at least there won't be any trans girls playing high school volleyball. (Z)