Trump’s war on clean energy threatens American jobs and investments while bolstering Big Oil. Because of the clean energy plan, America is in the midst of a clean energy boom with more than 334,000 jobs announced and $372 billion of investments. Trump has waged a war on clean energy and will devastate the industry if elected. 

Trump has conducted an all-out war on wind and solar energy. He has pledged to end subsidies for wind power if he is re-elected, repeatedly pushed conspiracy theories about whales and cancer, and attacked wind power over its cost, reliability, and environmental impact, among other things. Trump also attacked solar power as too expensive and unfeasible and elevated an attack to call wind and solar tax dodgers. 

If Trump wins in November, he will crush clean energy at the benefit of dirty fossil fuels. Trump wants to end the clean energy plan and threaten its jobs and investments in clean energy production. He’s said he will end offshore wind with an executive order and terminate the new clean power plant standards. His Project 2025 plans could cost 1.7 million jobs, jeopardize $1 trillion in clean energy investments, and shutter offices in the Department of Energy key to our clean energy transition. 

Trump’s War On Clean Energy Threatens American Jobs And Investments

Thanks To The Clean Energy Plan, America Is Witnessing A Clean Energy Boom, With More Than 334,000 Jobs Already Announced

• Since the passage of the clean energy plan, companies have announced $372 billion in investments with 646 new clean energy projects, creating more than 334,000 jobs.
• These clean energy jobs are providing Americans with cheaper, cleaner energy choices. 

But Trump Has Vowed To Crush Our Clean Energy Progress While Handing Big Oil Free Rein To Pollute

• While he was president, Trump’s war on clean energy cost Americans 1.1 million clean energy jobs.
• Trump has vowed to crush the clean energy boom to appease his Big Oil donors.
• Trump said he wanted to be a “dictator” on “Day One” to eliminate environmental protections and expand oil drilling, including in our nation’s treasured public lands and coastal areas. 

• At an April dinner, Trump asked Big Oil executives for $1 billion in campaign contributions, and promised them tax savings, the rollback of environmental protections and the end of the EPA’s clean cars standards.
• Trump told the executives he would open new offshore drilling, open arctic drilling, speed permitting, and end the LNG pause – all while attacking wind energy. 
• Trump even suggested he would ease FTC scrutiny of Big Oil’s mergers.     

Trump Has Consistently Waged A War On Clean Energy

Trump Attacked Wind Energy

• Trump’s feud with wind power dated back to 2006 when he bought an estate in Scotland for a golf course near a planned offshore wind farm, which he thought was ugly. In an attempt to stop the wind farm, Trump sued and lost. The project was completed in 2018.
• Trump actually said that windmills cause cancer (they don’t), that they kill “all the birds,” and drive the whales “crazy” and “a little batty,” and killed large numbers of whales.
• During a dinner with Big Oil executives, Trump proclaimed, “I hate wind.” 
• Trump claimed offshore wind turbines break down when exposed to saltwater.
• Trump claimed that having a windmill near a house hurt property values.
• Trump claimed wind farms had to be rebuilt every ten years. 
• Trump claimed “intermittent” wind energy would prevent people from watching television and that wind-powered electricity doesn’t work when the wind doesn’t blow. 
• Trump regularly (and falsely) attacked wind as the most expensive form of energy.
• Trump attacked windmills as bad for the environment and made in China.

Trump Attacked Solar Energy

• While president, the Trump administration did not hold any lease sales for solar, slow-walked existing solar projects, and retroactively billed the solar industry after a two-year rent holiday. 
• The Trump administration ended the solar investment tax credit.
• Trump’s 2018 tariffs on solar panels stifled projects and cost the U.S. 62,000 jobs, $19 billion in investments, and $10.5 million per day in unrealized economic activity.
• In 2020, Trump’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a rule that cut funding for small solar projects.
• Trump falsely said solar was too expensive. In reality it’s cheaper than fossil fuels and one of the cheapest forms of energy.  
• Trump lied about solar not being able to power factories.
• Trump falsely claimed that wind and solar received subsidies while oil and gas did not. 

If Trump Wins A Second Term, He Will Crush Clean Energy 

Trump Plans To Decimate Clean Energy

• Trump wants to end the clean energy plan and has attacked its spending. This would end investments in clean energy, jeopardizing American jobs and hurting communities across the country that are already seeing the benefits of investments in the clean energy economy of the future.
• Trump would halt wind power during a second term, including ending wind subsidies and ending offshore wind with an executive order on Day One.  
• A second Trump term would threaten 40 upcoming clean energy projects on federal land. 

• Trump’s Project 2025 climate and clean energy plans could cost Americans 1.7 million jobs in 2030.
• Project 2025 proposes to reverse initiatives in the clean energy plan and could jeopardize $1 trillion in clean energy investments. 
• Trump’s Project 2025 called for blocking the expansion of the electrical grid for wind and solar and would defund “most” Grid Deployment Office programs, restricting the federal government’s support for clean energy. 
• Project 2025 also calls for shuttering the Department of Energy’s renewable energy offices, including the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office which has $400 billion in loan authority to turbocharge emerging clean energy technologies.
  • The LPO has issued more than $35 billion of loans and loan guarantees. And as of May 2023, the LPO received $14.07 billion in repaid principal and $4.49 billion in paid interest. 
• Project 2025 would eliminate tax credits for clean energy projects created by the clean energy plan – jeopardizing billions in private sector investment and hundreds of thousands of jobs.