Written by: Paul Gerke
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President Donald Trump has wasted no time following through on previous pledges to neuter clean energy legislation enacted by his predecessor and establish new policies that promote the burning of more fossil fuels under the guise of putting America first.

Amidst a spate of executive orders signed Monday, Trump halted the disbursement of all funding provided by the bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), policies he calls the “Green New Scam.” He also cleared the way for drilling on federal lands to combat an “energy emergency” blamed on the previous administration, halted leasing and permitting for offshore wind projects, and restarted the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty combatting climate change.

The IRA funding pipeline gets plugged

Per an executive order titled “Unleashing American Energy,” Trump advises all federal agencies to immediately pause doling out IRA and IIJA funding including (but not limited to) money for electric vehicle charging stations made available through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program.

The new administration will review the processes, policies, and programs for issuing grants, loans, contracts, or any other financial disbursements of such appropriated funds for consistency with the law and a new energy policy outlined elsewhere in the order (detailed below). Within 90 days, all agency heads must submit a report to the Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) detailing the findings of this review, including recommendations to enhance their alignment with the new America-first energy policy.

Although the order does not appear to apply to funding already allocated, which would be very difficult to recall, it’s apparent that not another cent will flow from IRA coffers until those directors sign off on how the money will be used. The order also instructs entities procuring goods and services, making decisions about leases, and efforting other arrangements tapping into federal funds to prioritize cost-effectiveness, American workers and businesses, and the sensible use of taxpayer money, to the greatest extent.

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to rescind any unspent IRA funding, prompting federal agencies to rush billions of dollars out the door over the last few weeks before the new U.S. President was sworn in. During President Biden’s tenure, the landmark IRA and associated legislation poured hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy, electric infrastructure, and other climate initiatives. The Department of Energy has committed to disbursing more than $170 billion in grants and loans for wind, solar, hydrogen, and electric vehicle projects and supporting a mishmash of new and novel technologies. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently reported it had awarded 93% of the grant money received via the IRA.

America’s new energy policy

In the same executive order, Trump terminated Biden’s American Climate Corps, a New Deal-inspired jobs program to fight climate change, and ordered the EPA to consider eliminating the “social cost of carbon,” a metric used to estimate the potential economic damage caused by global warming and extreme weather. The benchmark has been previously used to establish environmental policies.

Trump also outlined a new national energy policy to “unleash America’s affordable and reliable energy and natural resources,” which is as follows:

It is the policy of the United States:

(a)  to encourage energy exploration and production on Federal lands and waters, including on the Outer Continental Shelf, in order to meet the needs of our citizens and solidify the United States as a global energy leader long into the future;

(b)  to establish our position as the leading producer and processor of non-fuel minerals, including rare earth minerals, which will create jobs and prosperity at home, strengthen supply chains for the United States and its allies, and reduce the global influence of malign and adversarial states;

(c)  to protect the United States’s economic and national security and military preparedness by ensuring that an abundant supply of reliable energy is readily accessible in every State and territory of the Nation;

(d)  to ensure that all regulatory requirements related to energy are grounded in clearly applicable law;

(e)  to eliminate the “electric vehicle (EV) mandate” and promote true consumer choice, which is essential for economic growth and innovation, by removing regulatory barriers to motor vehicle access; by ensuring a level regulatory playing field for consumer choice in vehicles; by terminating, where appropriate, state emissions waivers that function to limit sales of gasoline-powered automobiles; and by considering the elimination of unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived government-imposed market distortions that favor EVs over other technologies and effectively mandate their purchase by individuals, private businesses, and government entities alike by rendering other types of vehicles unaffordable;           

(f)  to safeguard the American people’s freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances, including but not limited to lightbulbs, dishwashers, washing machines, gas stoves, water heaters, toilets, and shower heads, and to promote market competition and innovation within the manufacturing and appliance industries;

(g)  to ensure that the global effects of a rule, regulation, or action shall, whenever evaluated, be reported separately from its domestic costs and benefits, in order to promote sound regulatory decision making and prioritize the interests of the American people;

(h)  to guarantee that all executive departments and agencies (agencies) provide opportunity for public comment and rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific analysis; and

(i)  to ensure that no Federal funding be employed in a manner contrary to the principles outlined in this section, unless required by law.  

Other energy orders

In his order declaring an “energy emergency,” Trump took thinly veiled potshots at renewables, suggesting their intermittency makes them inherently unreliable.

“A precariously inadequate and intermittent energy supply, and an increasingly unreliable grid, require swift and decisive action. Without immediate remedy, this situation will dramatically deteriorate in the near future due to a high demand for energy and natural resources to power the next generation of technology,” reads part of the order. “The United States’ ability to remain at the forefront of technological innovation depends on a reliable supply of energy and the integrity of our Nation’s electrical grid.  Our Nation’s current inadequate development of domestic energy resources leaves us vulnerable to hostile foreign actors and poses an imminent and growing threat to the United States’ prosperity and national security.”

The order determines the problems are most pronounced in the Northeast and on the West Coast, “where dangerous state and local policies jeopardize our nation’s core national defense and security needs, and devastate the prosperity of not only local residents but the entire United States population.” Those regions are classically associated with renewable energy, although Texas (which has gone red in 11 straight elections) is the new boomtown for clean tech. A slew of new solar, wind, and storage assets helped keep the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid stable this summer during record demand– a far cry from the year prior.

Trump also signed an executive order Monday that once again directed the United States to withdraw from the Paris Accord, a global climate agreement once championed by the U.S. that has the support of its closest allies. Trump abandoned the agreement in 2017 during his first term; Biden reversed course during his time in office. The pact allows countries to provide targets for emission reductions caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Last month, the outgoing Biden administration set a goal to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% by 2035. The ambitious edict will almost certainly be disregarded by the Trump Administration.