The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) spurred billions in manufacturing investments in red and blue states. Since its inception ion 2022, the IRA has raised $70 billion in total investments in economy-wide decarbonization. Cleantech jobs grew twice the national job growth rate. Between government and corporate sustainability commitments, the U.S. was on track to more than double its emissions reductions since 2010. And then Trump happened.
The world is waiting with bated breath for America to drop the proverbial climate ball. Amidst the nation’s cleantech challenges posed by the Trump administration, many oil-dependent countries see dollar signs. But China and the EU see an opportunity beyond oil, and they’re ready to leave the U.S. in the dust.
Trump’s first month in office reaffirms his populist politics. His brand is tailor-made to self-sabotage the federal government and foment distrust in public institutions. A second Trump administration resumes the president’s trademarked adversarial stance on climate change, clean energy, environmental protection, and justice. This time, though, the president is moving much faster, and the ante is that much higher.
Trump and the Attack on the Green Economy
Since assuming office, the president has issued a slew of executive orders. He’s slashed environmental regulations and federal cleantech incentives. He’s demanded federal departments and agencies to remove climate—and Justice, Equity, and Diversity (JEDI) -related language from their lexicon. Amidst these cleantech challenges, Project 2025 is enjoying many of its proposed policies embraced by the world’s most powerful person.
Trump is doing all he can to unilaterally dismantle signature Biden-era climate legislation, specifically, the IRA, which Trump deems the “Green New Scam.” His January 20, 2025 “Unleashing American Energy” executive order essentially made fossil fuel development the official U.S. energy policy. He withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords and opened the last great American wilderness to extractive industries. He’s blocked federal approvals for new wind farms and ordered federal agencies to end electric vehicle (EV) subsidies. Pledging to “drill, baby, drill,” the adminstrtaion is doing all it can to obstruct renewable energy projects on public lands.
Suffice it to say that there are some sobering cleantech challenges facing a sector committed to doing what’s right while trying to stand on its own in a deregulated and disincentivized economy.
Trump has blocked renewable energy leases on federal land while opening those same lands to extractive industries. This is to be expected: At a Mar-a-Lago dinner with energy company executives, Trump promised a quid-pro-quo rollback of Biden-era environmental regulations in exchange for one billion dollars of fossil fuel campaign donations. Congressional Republicans are about to prove to the nation if they serve their constituents or a personality cult: President Trump’s IRA funding freeze overwhelmingly affects Republican congressional districts.
Trump Policies and Effects on Domestic Manufacturing
Bloomberg NEF predicts significant cleantech challenges in 2025, with over half of the domestic cleantech manufacturing facilities slated for construction this year being delayed or canceled. Trump is eyeing already-issued IRA loans, putting dozens of domestic manufacturing and clean energy projects on shaky ground. His 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum will make it more expensive to build clean energy components in the U.S., and Grist reports that metals critical to clean energy manufacturing are caught up in the administration’s self-imposed U.S.-China trade war.
According to Ford CEO Jim Farley, the nation’s biggest auto OEM will likely have to lay off workers if Republicans close the tap on federal dollars slated to encourage U.S. cleantech manufacturing. He also warned that the president’s tariffs will “blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we have never seen.”
In Michigan, the Trump administration halted approximately $21 billion for clean energy projects, including nearly $400 million for consumer energy rebates and weatherization assistance for Michigan homes and $102 million earmarked for grid resiliency projects. Trump rescinded $500 million in federal support for Michigan automotive manufacturing and blocked $20 billion in loans or loan guarantees for clean energy projects in the state. China will hapilly gobble up the lost market share.
Meanwhile, the unofficial “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) is firing federal workers, slashing programs, and ripping up regulations. DOGE aims to weaken the federal government and coronate corporate control over sacrosanct American institutions. Its sweeping recommendations lack transparency and accountability, a facade rigged for deregulation, paranoia, and lining oligarchs’ pockets.
JEDI and U.S. Economic Dominance
The end of federal Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) initiatives will have decades-long consequences for cleantech. Many cleantech innovations occur at national laboratories and state-sponsored universities. Ironically, government-led JEDI programs at these facilities dismantle the nepotism that Trump claims to despise. Actively discouraging JEDI will block thousands of extremely well-qualified federal and state research and development employees from the sector.
The private sector is taking cues. Google has removed Black History Month, Pride, and other cultural events from its ubiquitous Google Calendar, and along with Apple has acknowledged the rebranding of the “Gulf of America.” Once vocal critics of President Trump’s environmental policies, the leaders of these organizations held seats of honor at Trump’s inauguration.
Immigration and economic downturns are climate issues that isolationist and hegemonic policies will only exacerbate.
A National Energy Emergency
Trump’s declaration of a “National Energy Emergency” calls for “a reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy,” but omits solar and wind energy and battery storage. The U.S. has ranked as the world’s largest crude oil producer six years in a row and has supplanted Russia as the top liquified natural gas exporter. All this to say, a “national energy emergency” is unwarranted.
However, the move is energizing polluting sectors. For instance, many utilities have backtracked on their commitments to decommission aging coal plants despite being more expensive than deploying renewables.
Conclusion: U.S. Cleantech Challenges are Grave, but not Insurmountable
Meanwhile, renewable energy is booming in the famously conservative, oil-friendly state of Texas, with 4.4 GW of new battery projects and nearly 9.7 GW of solar coming online in 2024, more than any other power generation source. Last year, the U.S. made record deployments in renewable energy. That momentum can be stymied but not stopped. Coal, the dirtiest energy source that once held prominence in U.S. energy production, only produces about 16 percent of the nation’s electricity. That’s far below cleaner energy sources like natural gas, nuclear power, and renewables. Political grandstanding aside, numbers speak: Polluting economies are on their way out.
More than 130 mayors and local leaders are calling on Congress to preserve clean energy tax credits that resulted in hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investments. In early February, solar industry leaders implored congressional Republicans of the essential role of clean energy in building American energy dominance. Meanwhile, energy companies—which stand to benefit most from a second Trump administration—are moving forward with direct air capture technologies.
In another sign of industry commitment to decarbonization, a joint venture of automakers remains committed to deploying public EV charging infrastructure, despite a freeze on NEVI.
The cleantech transition isn’t green—it’s dominant. Billions of dollars of federal funding injected into the private sector triggered a paradigm shift that can be slowed but not stopped. Clean infrastructure projects propelled by government funding are popping up in communities across the nation. While it remains unclear just how much the Trump administration’s interventions will hurt the economy, people, and the planet, one thing is sure: The cleantech community needs to rally around the facets that make it stand on its own feet, doubling down on market-driven forces that underpin a healthier, profitable, and sustainable economy. Despite cleantech challenges, the sector must focus on what it’s for and what it is, not what it’s against.
