Wind and solar developers are touting investments in Republican-led states and their support for President Donald Trump's "energy dominance" policies, as they look for ways to end attacks on their industry.
The clean energy sector is reeling from new obstacles that Trump rolled out after signing a tax law in July phasing out most of the industry's tax credits. Those obstacles include time-consuming permitting rules for wind and solar, the cancellation of $7bn in solar grants, construction delays for offshore wind, and a reshuffled permitting process for the largest proposed solar project in the US.
The unrelenting attacks on the sector have disappointed industry officials, who were optimistic about their prospects under Trump even without tax credits. Clean energy officials say their billions of dollars of investments in domestic manufacturing and energy production align with Trump's "energy dominance" agenda. And they say they can meet surging power demand for artificial intelligence years earlier than competing gas projects, which are facing supply chain delays.
"Big picture, our industry is completely aligned with the broad [energy] goals of the administration," American Clean Power Association chief executive Jason Grumet said on Wednesday. "And then we get our feelings hurt, because it seems like there's a sense that these resources — which are the fastest growing resources in the supply chain — are just ignored or disfavored."
Industry officials are hoping to move support in favor of renewables by focusing on the benefits their projects could bring to voters, such as reducing energy costs, the reshoring of manufacturing facilities and creating jobs. And they are hoping to tailor their message to Republicans that have been more skeptical about wind and solar.
"We haven't done a good enough job to really illustrate, you know, how these jobs are being created in the red states," offshore renewable trade group Oceantic Network chief executive Liz Burdock said last month during National Clean Energy Week.
Clean energy groups ran a version of the same campaign earlier this year, as Republicans were deciding whether to cut many of the industry's tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act. Industry officials lobbying on the law noted that most of the tax credits were flowing to "red" districts, but Republicans repealed most of them anyway. As wind and solar developers shift to confronting permitting obstacles created under Trump, they are doubling down on their messaging.
"We would love to work more with the administration to show them that this is really meaningful for people in so many states, particularly red ones," solar manufacturer Array Technologies chief commercial officer Jessica Lawrence-Vaca said on Wednesday.
Their efforts so far appear to be finding limited traction. Trump has continued to regularly disparage wind and solar, calling wind turbines "pathetic" and green energy a "scam" in a speech to the UN General Assembly last month. The US Interior Department has halted permitting of clean energy projects during the government shutdown, while continuing to work on oil and gas. US energy secretary Chris Wright is frequently critical of wind and solar, which he has cast as unreliable and costly.
"There is massive and growing opposition across the country to wind power," Wright said last month.
Industry officials say they are focusing on getting the message out that the administration is not just blocking wind and solar on federal lands, but also using federal permitting as a way to impede clean energy on private lands. Grumet, of the American Clean Power Association, estimates half of clean energy projects in the pipeline might need some federal approval even if they are largely on private lands.
"People don't believe us, because no one really believes that the administration would stop private companies from building things on private land," Grumet said.
