Clean Energy’s Cost Edge Could Trump ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’

Current Climate brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability every Monday. .

he realization that Donald Trump is returning to the White House next year is rattling the cleantech industry and unnerving climate advocates – with good reason. The last time he was in office the president-elect pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accords, called climate change a hoax, falsely claimed offshore wind turbines kill whales and big wind farms are a top killer of birds (house cats are a much bigger threat ).

But don't count out the fast-growing clean power industry just yet. Billionaire investor Tom Steyer is betting that renewable energy and the cleantech sector are going to be just fine , regardless of Trump's fixation on hydrocarbons.

"Texas has tripled their solar in the last three years and is by far the biggest wind producer. Are they doing it because they like renewables or because they like money? I think it might be because they like money. And so does everybody else," Steyer told Forbes. "People are making decisions for cheaper, faster, better. That's the decision, not politics."

He plans to continue to use the $1 billion his firm Galvanize Climate Solutions has raised and future investments to back companies with advantages in areas like cost-competitive low-carbon cement, ag technology that helps farmers improve efficiency and sustainability, energy management software as well as cheap, continuous geothermal power.

And though he talked about repealing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) during the campaign, that's easier said than done . Most of those projects have been bringing jobs and investment dollars to Republican-held Congressional districts . Cleantech could even benefit from some Trump policies–like cutting both the corporate tax rate and red tape, including time-consuming environmental reviews, that hold up the siting of green projects and electricity transmission lines.

No one knows exactly what the next administration will do, but Steyer thinks rising U.S. power demand and the cost advantage that wind and solar will trump all other factors.

"Most Americans think fossil fuels are cheaper as an electricity source than solar and wind. And that's not true. In fact, solar and wind are cheaper now and getting even cheaper," he said. "So you're talking about competing against that. You can't make oil or natural gas more efficient. It just is what it is."

The Big Read

How the Country's Largest Environmental Group Is Preparing To Fight Trump

During the last Trump administration, the Sierra Club filed some 300 lawsuits intended to fight back against efforts to gut environmental protections. It expects to file even more during the next.

"Our short-term strategy is to run our playbook from 2016," executive director Ben Jealous told Forbes. Along with lawsuits, the nation's oldest and largest environmental group plans to submit scores of Freedom of Information requests to find ties to fossil fuels and potential corruption among Trump's incoming Cabinet members.

"We are gearing up aggressively to get ready to defend the United States against the corrupt individuals he will undoubtedly attempt to appoint as his Cabinet," said Jealous, who was previously president of the NAACP and took charge of the Sierra Club in November 2022.

Read more here.

Hot Topic

Steven Cohen, Columbia University professor and former executive director of its Earth Institute, on Lee Zeldin's appointment to head the EPA

Were you surprised that Trump picked Lee Zeldin to head up the EPA?

If I have to choose a politician who at least pays attention to public opinion and an industry lobbyist, I'd rather have the politician.

He's a representative from Long Island. Long Island had Hurricane Sandy. They have a single aquifer that provides all the water. And they have shoreline issues with the Long Island Sound. Any Congressional representative from Long Island is going to need to have some sensitivity to environmental decisions.

He's an anti-regulatory ideologue so we will see the usual language. The White House is going to undo the regulatory stuff that the Biden people have done. How much will take place is hard to predict.

He's a different kind of decision than I was expecting. I was expecting another fossil fuel lobbyist or some other kind of lobbyist. He has very little management experience and very little environmental experience, but he's at least someone who knows how to read a public opinion poll.

What we are starting to see is that people who are personally exposed to extreme weather events are starting to understand the climate issue. Most people now don't think climate change is a hoax. If you live in New York City, you are experiencing brush fires in Inwood Hill Park and Prospect Park. This is not a problem 20 years in the future. It is here now.

What are your biggest fears for the agency under Zeldin?

My biggest fear is that the scientists will leave again because that's what happened before. A lot of the real work of environmental protection happens in state and local agencies. He has 17,000 people, so it's relatively small. But the EPA has some scientific and laboratory capacity that doesn't exist at the state level. People were leaving left and right during the [first] Trump Administration, and it was rebuilding over the last four years. The question is whether he goes after the staff the way that his predecessors did.

So will this be better than Scott Pruitt last time?

Pruitt didn't understand the appearance of many of the things he was doing. Zeldin is a veteran and has been a public servant for his career and is sensitive to those things.

He won't be putting out positive messages on the environment. At the same time, there is broad support for clean air and clean water and no one wants their children to be poisoned by lead or toxins. This is an Administration where the policy is going to be to cut regulations. What I will be looking for is, does he attack the scientific capacity of the agency? I don't know what they are going to do there.

What Else We're Reading

'Fossil fuels are still winning': Global emissions head for a record

Trump chooses Lee Zeldin to run EPA as he plans to gut climate rules

Exxon says Trump should keep U.S. in Paris Climate pact

The new climate champions set to enter Congress

U.S. unveils plan to triple nuclear power as energy demand soars

How oil and gas companies disguise their methane emissions

Scientists are dumping fake whale poop into the ocean

Zimbabwe's climate migration is a sign of what's to come

Could Trump's return pose a threat to climate and weather data ?

Rice University discovers 'hot carriers' for on-demand, emission-free hydrogen generation

Dry winds in New York and New Jersey keep wildfires burning throughout the region