Renew Support for Renewable Energy

Renew Support for Renewable Energy

By The Editors edited by Megha Satyanarayana

Incoming president Donald Trump and his administration have called warnings about climate change “alarmist,” and they have pledged to further expand oil and natural gas production. But there are important reasons for the U.S. to expand its use of clean energy technologies as well. Renewable energy not only cuts carbon emissions; it is an economic juggernaut.

Renewable energy is growing faster than any other electricity source in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Globally, the market for these technologies is projected to rise from $700 billion in 2023 to more than $2 trillion by 2035.

China dominates the worldwide markets for solar panels, electric vehicles, and batteries able to store energy when the sun or wind is down. If the U.S. does not support domestic renewable-energy industries, China’s dominance will only grow, with the European Union and India poised to also rise. If the Trump administration stops federal support for renewables or, worse, discourages them, the nation will both continue to degrade its environment and miss a profound economic opportunity. “This is ceding the future,” says Steven Cohen, director of Columbia University’s master’s program in sustainability management.

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More renewables also means greater U.S. energy independence, and right now it means more support for domestic industries. According to an August 2024 report by the Rhodium Group and partners, the five states receiving the most clean energy and clean technology dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act, relative to the size of their economy, are all red or “swing” states: Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Tennessee and Montana. There is plenty more cash from the Inflation Reduction Act to hand out—unless the Trump administration dismantles the legislation.

That would be a mistake. A rise in renewable energy does not mean a fall in oil or natural gas. U.S. production is growing there, too, and overall power demand is increasing. We’re not proposing a future free of fossil fuels. Major energy transitions take time. But as numerous studies have shown, more fossil-fuel consumption makes climate change, air and water pollution, and public health worse. Ultimately renewable energy costs less, and the cheaper technology always wins. Some U.S. states have gotten this message: Texas, the oil center of the country, now produces more wind power than any other state. The market for clean technologies is “increasingly catching up with the markets for fossil fuels,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, noted in an October 2024 release of the agency’s latest study.

A common refrain from critics is that U.S. renewable-energy industries depend on subsidies. Truth is, that’s how canals, roads, trains, steel, aluminum, corn, soybeans and space rockets developed, too. And even though the U.S. oil and gas industries are more than a century old, they still get huge subsidies as well. China subsidizes its renewable-­tech­nol­o­gy industries—and for the rest of the world, that’s positive. Inexpensive Chinese solar panels, electric cars and wind turbines help to accelerate the energy transition worldwide. Energy transitions are costly, notes Jeffrey Frankel, professor of capital formation and growth at Harvard University and a research ­as­­sociate at the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research. So, he asks, why not let Chinese taxpayers foot a subsidy bill that helps to spread renewable energy everywhere?

Capitol Hill’s view of the renewable-­energy industry may be influenced by the strong fossil-fuel industry lobby. But the big users of renewable energy have strong influence, too. More than 70 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product now comes from the service sector, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, and it is gaining in political power. Meta is the largest buyer of solar panels in the country. The service sector consumes gobs of energy; witness the meteoric rise in energy demand from artificial-­intelligence data centers. These com­­panies want the cheapest power prices, and renewables offer them. “Money tends to dominate over ideology,” Cohen says.

Most people recognize that climate change is real and a result of our own actions, notably, burning fossil fuels, which they increasingly see as harmful. According to a large 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center, “59 percent [of Americans] think that air and water quality would get better if the U.S. greatly reduced fossil-­fuel energy production and increased production from renewable sources.” The survey also found that “67 percent of Americans say the U.S. should prioritize developing alternative energy sources, such as wind, solar and hydrogen technology, while 32 percent say the priority should be expanding the exploration and production of oil, coal and natural gas.”

A cultural shift is underway, in part because many more people in the U.S. are experiencing extreme weather: most recently, unprecedented flooding in North Carolina from Hurricane Helene and rec­ord-breaking drought killing crops across many states. Homeowners in some coastal states cannot get flood insurance. These experiences put millions of Americans at great risk of death, injury or financial ruin. People can see that the scientific predictions have been correct all along. They are increasingly worried about their health and their children’s well-being. They are feeling the human impact.

Supporting renewable energy is not asking anyone to do without—we won’t have to give up our trucks or air conditioners. It provides an opportunity to reduce the threats we all face and to lead in a rapidly expanding, thriving economy.