Author: Jessie Satovsky
Editors: Victoria Maza and Maria Mendoza
The second Trump administration has been running an offensive against the U.S. energy sector, taking aim at clean energy like wind and solar and promoting coal, oil, and natural gas. These actions are in line with the administration’s stance against clean energy, but these developments are incredibly detrimental now due to rising energy demand, clean energy innovation worldwide, and issues with traditional energy sources.
The U.S. is facing an unprecedented increase in energy demand. New data centers and AI facilities are being planned and built at breakneck speeds, and are expected to drive half of U.S. electricity demand growth through 2030. Additionally, climate change is increasing the severity and frequency of natural disasters, causing more power outages and threatening the reliability of the power grid. These issues exacerbate the need for increased electricity generation and upgraded grid infrastructure. This makes the administration’s attack on key sectors of the energy industry extra problematic for electricity access and livelihoods.
The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has incited a clean energy revolution in the U.S. The IRA has provided unprecedented medium-term, sustained subsidies for clean energy development. Before the IRA, most government investment into the industry was short-term; the IRA established and expanded tax credits for clean energy manufacturing, energy production, and industry investments that would last into the 2030s, giving clean energy developers and manufacturers a long, secure runway for their projects, which can take up to a decade or longer to get permits for, let alone plan and build.
The Trump administration pushed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) through Congress this past July along very slim margins. The almost 900-page-long document has many provisions, including some that directly target sections of the IRA. The IRA allowed developers to get up to 30% of a project’s total; for instance, on a $100 million project, that would constitute $30 million in credits. The OBBB’s provisions rapidly eliminate these tax credits, putting a wrench in the IRA-fueled clean energy development. Among the changes in the bill are a complete phase-out of tax credits for solar and wind projects that have not been placed in service before December 31, 2027, much sooner than the IRA’s timeline of starting to discontinue credits in 2032. Since developers take approximately two to seven years to complete projects, and they had planned on a longer timeline, this major shift has been disastrous. It has caused developers to cancel or shelve projects that they had invested millions in because they can no longer financially support them. This major shift and uncertainty around how the new provisions will be implemented have also scared investors, causing even more projects to shut down prematurely.
These issues have been exacerbated by a Trump executive order released three days after the OBBB was passed. The order asked the Secretary of the Treasury to issue guidance on what constitutes the “beginning of construction” for projects. This is significant because it could bar some projects from accessing credits. For instance, one requirement to access the tax credits is for projects to have “started” (defined by beginning construction) by a certain date. The follow-up Treasury guidance was not as harsh as developers had feared, but still made the standard stricter. The implementation of this new provision has increased uncertainty for developers, which will further impact projects and investor confidence.
Additionally, the Department of the Interior issued a new memorandum in July. The memorandum centralizes the permitting process for all wind and solar projects, making it even harder for projects to get approvals. This could effectively stop them from accessing tax credits by creating costly delays that prevent projects from finishing before 2027.
Furthermore, the Trump administration has been targeting wind projects; in August, it stalled a huge, almost-finished offshore wind project on Rhode Island’s coast over vague national security claims. While the project was permitted to continue after a month, the administration’s actions cost the project over $2 million each day in fees while it was stalled. These actions and other attacks by the administration on the wind industry could continue to create costly delays and scare investors, sending shockwaves through the wind industry.
These issues are not just isolated to developers: natural gas and coal prices are rising, climate change and data centers are straining the grid, and utilities are passing these new costs off to consumers, significantly raising electricity rates. Clean energy is not perfect either; there are many issues related to its development and deployment, including greenhouse gas emissions and ecosystem destruction in some cases. Solar and wind, when not paired with batteries, are also intermittent forms of energy. Utilities are also working to update electricity infrastructure (namely, transmission lines) to support new energy generation and demand. Building new infrastructure is another new expense that is hurting utility and consumer pockets alike.
Clean energy technology is becoming increasingly necessary to meet energy demand and reduce costs. Traditional energy resources like oil and natural gas prices are increasing, while clean energy is cheaper and faster to scale up, even without government subsidies. This is primarily because new gas power plants are facing years-long waits for turbines (which are a key component of how the plants generate electricity). Thus, out of pure necessity, supporting the clean energy sector is the U.S.’s best bet at this point. While the OBBB and recent agency guidance are major setbacks to current development, the industry will likely continue to grow across the U.S. Clean energy is one of our best options at this point to quickly meet energy demand, save money, and decrease energy sector-related greenhouse gas emissions.
Overall, the rollback of federal support for clean energy not only jeopardizes industry progress but threatens U.S. energy resilience and affordability. For people not directly involved in the policy process, there are a couple of things to do with this information. Beyond keeping abreast of the news in the energy industry, individuals can take steps to be more efficient with their energy usage, like using energy monitors to reduce their electricity bill. This is increasingly important because electricity prices are projected to increase. Getting rooftop solar panels is another way to reduce electricity costs, but they must be installed before December 31, 2025, to take advantage of the IRA’s tax credits. Voting in local elections is also critical for electricity planning. In Georgia, members of the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) regulate electric services in the state, including criticizing and approving utilities’ electricity plans. The election for two members of Georgia’s PSC is on November 4, 2025, and other states have similar elections coming up in 2026, so individuals should plan to vote for Commissioners who align with their priorities.
Emory Environmental Report 
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