Editorial
Trump War on Wind Power Innovation Is as Irrational as It Is Damaging to AEC Firms
Work is underway on the 704-MW Revolution Wind offshore wind energy project in New England before the project was shut down under Trump administration order late last month.
If the Trump administration takes on every perceived challenger as relentlessly as it has in its “war” on wind power, the targets should surrender now. China ought to disband its military, Fentanyl smugglers should turn themselves in and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell might as well empty his desk.
There is nothing President Donald Trump now is more laser-focused on—and his devoted cabinet chiefs as equally obsessed over—as the irrational attacks they have unleashed on U.S. onshore and offshore wind. Previous months of growing restrictions and disappearing incentives exploded last month into a full-blown offensive that took back hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, is about to revoke legally awarded construction permits years in the making and shut down projects now being built—including at least one that’s nearly done.
Wind power is not perfect but it’s lowering cost, improving efficiency and speed to market through global innovation—and yes—direct and indirect government support, have made it a viable energy supply provider to add to, or to some degree, challenge, fossil fuels. That sector has also had plenty of government support, as much as $35 billion annually, according to new data analysis by environmental advocate Oil Change International—based on tax breaks, lower rates to acquire land and other resources, direct appropriations and other financial support from the U.S. and government-funded groups.
Wind power now is the largest source of U.S. renewable energy, providing about 10% of total American energy capacity, the U.S. Energy Dept. said last year—and up to 26% in Texas, which leads the nation. State lawmakers failed to pass a bill this year to curtail wind power, hopefully enlightened by data showing prices would rise 14% if renewable energy growth was curbed.
With more lawsuits challenging Trump- ordered slaps to the wind sector that could prevail, the administration also wants to win in the court of public opinion. So the President leads his cabinet chiefs to derisively dismiss highly engineered wind energy systems as “windmills,” and assert wrongly that turbines kill whales and cause cancer.
Trump sued a decade ago to shut down an offshore wind system in Scotland, attempting to convince a court there that golfers who pay high fees at his nearby course spend more time gazing at spinning turbine blades than watching the trajectory of their golf balls.
He lost that legal battle, but the action hardly represents a leader who wants the U.S. to dominate the global AI race when his “all of the above” energy strategy needed to achieve that excludes renewable power. You can’t fix an “energy emergency” with a partial solution.
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'Misguided Bid to Pick Winners and Losers'
China will be a tough competitor in the race to power AI—having invested alot in offshore wind energy for years, with the government enabling expansive projects and the world’s most powerful turbines—and now seeking growth in non-Chinese markets. It also has expanded and modernized coal and gas power plants, but fossil fuel output still has dropped 2% so far this year, compared to the same period last year, as wind and solar generation rose 16% and 43%, respectively, says research firm Ember.
The U.S. can compete, but not by the government “playing politics with new construction, in a misguided bid to pick winners and losers,” said a Washington Post editorial, or by risking much-needed investor confidence by revoking hard-won federal construction permits or shutting down projects.
None of this, not even basic notions of fair play, seems to matter if the U.S. executive branch now devotes itself to shaping every aspect of business life and markets and reserves the right to destroy what it doesn’t like. Now that the Trump administration has renamed the U.S. Dept. of Defense as the Dept. of War, it may as well christen a new cabinet-level department—the Dept. of Business Prevention.
Trump has sold America on his image as a successful builder. He should know to let experts in the energy construction business fulfill their contracts so investors have confidence their money won't be lost. He should also let the construction sector workforce now designing and building clearly needed systems continue to do their jobs, develop careers in their groundbreaking work and motivate the next generation to tackle this important mission ahead.
