US renewable energy has tripled in a decade – but Trump cancels almost $8bn in projects | Trump administration

Renewable energy within the US has surged to unprecedented ranges, with the mixed energy generated by solar, wind and geothermal greater than tripling over the previous decade, in keeping with a brand new report by a community of state environmental teams.

The expansion has slashed dangerous greenhouse gasoline emissions, made the nation’s vitality system extra resilient and prevented hundreds of untimely deaths from energy plant air pollution, in keeping with the report by Environment America.

However this progress faces rising resistance as Donald Trump in his first 15 weeks in workplace has begun to dismantle federal policies and spending geared toward easing the local weather disaster.

It’s all occurring at a time of heightened concern amongst environmentalists. Regardless of a world accord to decrease greenhouse gasoline emissions, the ambiance now accommodates file ranges of heat-trapping gases. All 50 states have warmed because the first Earth Day in 1970, in keeping with a new analysis by Climate Central, an unbiased non-profit group that researches and disseminates details about the local weather disaster and its results.

Among the many highlights of the Setting America report:

• Wind, photo voltaic and geothermal vitality accounted for 19% of all retail gross sales of electrical energy final 12 months, in keeping with the federal knowledge used to provide the report.

• Practically 3.3m electrical autos have been on US roads on the finish of 2023 – a 25-fold improve from 2014. The variety of electrical automobile charging ports, in the meantime, grew to greater than 218,000 on the finish of 2024 – six occasions greater than there have been in 2015 and a 24% improve from simply the 12 months earlier than.

Greater than 1.5m plug-in electrical autos have been offered in 2024, a rise of greater than 7% over the earlier 12 months, in keeping with the Argonne National Laboratory. Practically 300,000 new electrical autos have been offered within the US through the first quarter of 2025 – an 11% improve over the identical interval final 12 months, Kelley Blue Book data reveals.

“The expansion of those clear vitality applied sciences is now clearly benefiting folks in all 50 states, and so they’re actually offering the constructing blocks of a clear vitality system free from soiled and inefficient fuels,” stated Johanna Neumann, senior director of the Marketing campaign for 100% Renewable Energy, which is led by Setting America. “And the extra that we are able to speed up the progress that we’ve seen, the higher it’ll be for our well being and for our surroundings.”

A lot of the states which have seen the most important will increase in wind, photo voltaic and geothermal vitality over the previous decade are within the south – and most are Republican states, in keeping with a Floodlight evaluation of the federal knowledge used within the Setting America report.

A few of these states, together with Mississippi and Alabama, nonetheless rank low within the whole quantity of renewable vitality produced. However different right-leaning southern states, together with Florida and North Carolina, now rank above most others when it comes to the full renewable vitality generated.

For these involved in regards to the local weather disaster, nevertheless, a brand new evaluation factors to a extra worrisome signal: virtually $8bn in investments – together with 16 large-scale factories and different initiatives – have been canceled, closed or downsized within the first three months of 2025, in keeping with the report by E2, a nonpartisan group of enterprise leaders who advocate for sound environmental insurance policies.

Possible contributing to the cancellations: market uncertainty and the talk in Congress over repealing tax credit and different incentives for clear vitality initiatives. The $7.9bn in investments withdrawn this 12 months are greater than thrice the quantity canceled over the earlier two years, the E2 report notes.

“Clear vitality corporations nonetheless need to put money into America, however uncertainty over Trump administration insurance policies and the way forward for essential clear vitality tax credit are taking a transparent toll,” E2 spokesperson Michael Timberlake stated in an announcement.

The Inflation Discount Act, Joe Biden’s huge local weather regulation, prolonged renewable vitality tax credit till a minimum of 2032. Whether or not the Republican-controlled Congress will eradicate these tax credits is unclear.

“I feel that market certainty has been stripped away for a lot of of those applied sciences proper now, and so they’re feeling uneasy,” Neumann stated. “And so it’s not stunning to me that we’re seeing a retraction in funding.”

Floodlight is a non-profit newsroom that investigates the powers stalling local weather motion.