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Policy Watch

Trump’s Energy Direction: 5 Early Takeaways

And more on this week’s top policy and energy news.

Trump and wind.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images.

Trump’s energy direction – We’re far enough into the Trump 2.0 transition that I can offer a few specific insights having covered him the first go-around.

  1. Trump’s pick for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum indicates any form of energy or resource extraction prevalent in his state of North Dakota could be safe from the wrath of political meddling in permitting. That includes onshore wind and battery metals.
  2. Trump’s selection for Energy Secretary – gas CEO Chris Wright – indicates even more reason for optimism about mining given the heavy overlap between companies in historic fracking development and U.S. lithium industry growth.
  3. Trump’s EPA pick Lee Zeldin previously backed legislation to ease permitting for renewable energy, though I anticipate from his lack of agency leadership experience that he’ll be more deferential to political directions than a former governor or CEO.
  4. Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick was chosen for the Commerce Department, which will dictate tariff proposals. Although Cantor Fitzgerald itself supports the “megatrend” that is the energy transition, I expect China hawkishness to prevail above fear of short-term impact on American renewables projects.
  5. Even with all this, you should expect the deputy picks to matter for solar and wind. Trump 1.0 began with figurehead agency leaders (Ryan Zinke at Interior, Scott Pruitt at EPA) and an empowered assistant administrator, who was usually a former lobbyist or ideologue. I’m anticipating the same here.

New hydrogen hub backing – The Energy Department has announced more than $2.2 billion in cost-sharing agreements with two more hydrogen hubs in the Midwest and Gulf Coast.

  • Both hubs appear to rely on both renewable energy and natural gas to get their jobs done. Given the uncertainty surrounding Trump’s views on hydrogen, it’s likely this move is intended to get out ahead of any effort to claw back funds from the infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act.

Here’s what else I’m watching…

A Virginia Circuit Court has struck down Governor Glenn Youngkin’s attempt to withdraw the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed new legislation creating new tax breaks and financing for offshore wind as she defiantly insists the industry will continue to grow during the Trump 2.0 era.

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Spotlight

The Fate of Wind Energy in Arkansas Is on Eagles’ Wings

The Nimbus wind project in the Ozark Mountains is moving forward even without species permits, while locals pray Trump will shut it down.

An eagle, wind power, and Arkansas.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The state of Arkansas is quickly becoming an important bellwether for the future of renewable energy deployment in the U.S., and a single project in the state’s famed Ozark Mountains might be the big fight that decides which way the state’s winds blow.

Arkansas has not historically been a renewables-heavy state, and very little power there is generated from solar or wind today. But after passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the state saw a surge in project development, with more than 1.5 gigawatts of mostly utility-scale solar proposed in 2024, according to industry data. The state also welcomed its first large wind farm that year.

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Hotspots

Offshore Wind Bluster Hits New England


And more on the week’s most important conflicts around renewable energy projects.

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Newport County, Rhode Island – The Trump administration escalated its onslaught against the offshore wind sector in the past week … coincidentally (or not) right after a New England-based anti-wind organization requested that it do so.

  • Over the Labor Day weekend, the Trump administration stated in a court filing that it planned to potentially redo the record of decision for Orsted’s SouthCoast wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, and yesterday, Justice Department officials said they would vacate the approval of Avangrid’s construction and operations plan for its New England 1 offshore project.
  • These announcements got a lot of media attention. Less focus was bestowed on what preceded these moves: Last week, the anti-wind organization Green Oceans partnered with four tribes native to the Northeast and together sent petitions to the Interior and Transportation Departments, as well as the Defense Department, calling for the “immediate suspension” of offshore wind in the region.
  • According to a press release, the petitions asked for projects under construction to stop work as well as called for an end to the operation of South Fork, a completed and operating wind farm off the coast of New York. The petitions rely largely on a national security rationale that mirrors the administration’s reasoning for halting work on Orsted’s Revolution Wind offshore project. (Orsted sued over that move today, by the way.)
  • We cannot say at the moment how much this specific maneuver mattered to an administration already hostile to offshore wind. But there’s reason to believe Green Oceans is an influential organization within Trump administration circles. Early this year I reported on a roadmap created by a constellation of opposition groups, including the head of Green Oceans, and submitted to the Trump transition team showing how the incoming administration could block offshore wind development. Several of the turns in that roadmap have ultimately come to pass.
  • We also now know that Green Oceans has been in direct contact with Trump officials about individual offshore wind projects. Last week, E&E News published internal emails that showed the organization obtained a meeting in May with senior Interior Department officials to discuss cancelling all current offshore wind leases held by developers.
  • At this juncture, it’s genuinely impossible to know how far Trump will go. But now we know the opposition to offshore wind is going for the Full Monty: shutting down operating projects on a national security justification.

2. Madison County, New York – Officials in this county are using a novel method to target a wind project: They’re claiming it’ll disrupt 911 calls.

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Q&A

How Renewable Projects Can Be a Political Win-Win

Chatting party polarization with League of Conservation Voters CEO Pete Maysmith.

The CEO of the League of Conservation Voters.
Heatmap Illustration

For this week’s conversation I chatted with Pete Maysmith, CEO of the League of Conservation Voters. There’s no one I’d rather talk to at a moment when any conflict over a solar farm can turn into the equivalent of a heated political campaign. I wanted to know how LCV is approaching the way renewables are becoming more partisan and the insurgent rise of local opposition to project development. Thankfully, Maysmith was willing to take some time right before the Labor Day weekend to sit in my hot seat.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

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