It is clear that the environmental and energy policies that will emerge under President-elect Donald Trump will look very different from those of the Biden administration. During his acceptance speech early on the morning of Nov. 6, Trump characterized the Republican sweep as a “mandate” for change, and environmental advocates fear it will encourage policy reversals and funding that is now available to address environmental justice inequities and looming climate impacts. change, which he has described as a “hoax”.
Trump’s supporters say he will be more open to a comprehensive approach to energy sources, as outlined in Project 2025, developed by conservative interests and often referenced by Trump, in which the refusal to recognize the shift climate is key. characteristic “A hallmark of the first Trump administration was not picking winners and losers in energy technologies,” said Mark Menezes, former assistant secretary of energy in 2020-2021 and now president and CEO of the Energy Association of the USA, on November 6 in Bracewell. Policy Resolution Group Webinar. That could be good news for proponents of a variety of nascent and established technologies, including nuclear, hydrogen and fusion, he said.
In addition, the Trump administration is likely to make an early priority of reversing the current pause in the construction of US LNG export terminals and being more liberal in regulating energy programs, with more oversight returned to states. “What I would expect from this incoming Trump administration is to look for where restrictions exist that don’t allow those who need … affordable energy to choose,” Menezes said.
Need for bipartisanship
Several sources say the voting numbers were symptomatic of a broad philosophical shift defined not by traditional categories of race or ethnicity, but more by class and education. Some suggest that Harris’ campaign failed to connect with more populist and working-class voters more concerned about the economy than other issues, and those voters turned out in large numbers.
Democratic House member Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.), who easily won her re-election campaign Tuesday, said, “There’s a lot of deep research that we need to do as a party, I would say.”
With narrow margins in both the House and Senate, Budzinski said lawmakers will be forced to work bipartisanly on issues where they can find “common ground … focusing on the areas where we can work together.” A top priority with bipartisan support will likely be environmental permitting reform, he said.
Maria Lehman, US infrastructure market leader for GHD, vice chair of the White House National Infrastructure Advisory Council and president emeritus of the American Society of Civil Engineers, noted that the passage of the Act’s funding of development of water resources was unanimous in the Senate and practically so in the Chamber. . “Infrastructure is still the order of the day,” he said. “The main difference is we won’t have the headwinds we had, but we won’t have headwinds.”
Trump campaign rhetoric about evisceration what remains of environmental and clean energy funding The Inflation Reduction Act will face congressional rejection based on support from several red-state lawmakers, with a design firm executive pointing to the House Speaker’s remarks Mike Johnson (R-La.) that revisions to the law would be done “with a scalpel.”
The executive noted the extreme level of campaign misinformation spread related to the Biden administration’s energy and environmental policies and the impacts on business outcomes. “Engineers talk about the facts,” the executive said. “When people don’t have them, it’s bad.”
Fallout from environmental policy
Environmentalists point out that the climate crisis is real and won’t wait for anyone. “Existing policies are not enough to help the United States meet its 2030 goal of halving emissions below 2005 levels, let alone achieve additional reductions by 2035,” said Rachel Cleetus, policy director and chief economist of the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a statement. “President-elect Trump ran a brutal campaign that ignored or misrepresented scientific facts, while promising to increase the fortunes of fossil fuel companies,” he said.
Still, the groups say they find a kernel of hope in the fact that many states have set decarbonization goals and targets, and that infrastructure projects funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Law are popular not only in the democratic trend. blue states, but also in solidly Republican red ones. “There were so many red districts that got money,” one industry executive told ENR, noting that Texas is a leader in building solar and onshore wind in the United States.
“There’s no denying that another Trump presidency will set back national efforts to address the climate crisis and protect the environment, but the majority of America’s state, local and private leaders are committed to moving forward,” said Dan Lashof, American director of World Resources. Institute, said in a statement.
Nathaniel Keohane, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, said the clean energy economy is here to stay. “Thanks to policies with bipartisan support that channel investment into innovation and the deployment of clean technologies, we are on the cusp of a more prosperous future: one where abundant carbon-free energy sources like wind, solar and nuclear improve America’s security, where investments in clean energy manufacturing create good jobs, and where the technologies that will drive tomorrow’s economy (small modular reactors, clean hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel, advanced batteries and so many others) are invented and deployed here in the US and exported around the world.”
Some clean energy groups issued statements that claim to credit the progress made during the last Trump administration and the sofa sector needs benefits for America’s energy security and manufacturing dominance. The American Clean Energy Association “looks forward to working with the Trump-Vance administration to unleash American-made energy, deliver reliable power to the grid, grow the economy and improve our national security,” it said in a communicated “Our industry grew by double digits every year under the first Trump administration and has since accelerated that rate of progress. Private sector investment in clean energy is bringing jobs and economic opportunity to small towns and rural communities across the country, while hundreds of new factories have come online in states that have seen too many good jobs move overseas.”
Oceanic Network President and CEO Liz Burdock, who leads the leading advocacy group for the US offshore wind industry, a key target of Trump, nevertheless hailed his “historic political comeback” in a communicated He said eight years ago, the first Trump administration “laid the foundational framework for our modern offshore wind industry and oversaw seven federal lease sales that generated $456 million for the federal treasury. The industry will respond by making early supply chain investments that are now creating jobs in Texas and South Carolina,” he said.
Meanwhile, environmental groups upset by the election result say they will ramp up their powerful legal arsenals, vowing to fight the incoming administration’s attempts to roll back environmental protections as done under Trump’s previous term.
Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen said: “We will see Donald Trump in court.”
