Donald Trump’s aggressive drive to boost fossil fuels, including dirty coal, coupled with his administration’s moves to roll back wind and solar power, face mounting fire from courts, scholars and Democrats for raising the cost of electricity and worsening the climate crisis.
Four judges, including a Trump appointee, in recent weeks have issued temporary injunctions against interior department moves to halt work on five offshore wind projects in Virginia, New York and New England, which have cost billions of dollars and are far along in development.
Meanwhile, Trump energy officials last year issued emergency orders to keep open five ageing coal plants that were slated to close in Washington, Michigan and three other states; repairs on some of the coal plants are expected to be costly and time consuming, and some states are challenging the federal actions.
“Trump’s decisions make no sense from either the perspective of environmental protection or the cost of energy,” Naomi Oreskes, a Harvard University science historian and professor of earth and planetary sciences, said.
“By blocking wind projects that are just about ready to go on line, and reviving dangerous and uneconomic coal-powered plants, this administration is raising both the direct costs of energy for the American people, and the indirect costs we suffer through polluted air and climate damage.”
Further, the Trump administration has pushed to increase liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, which have also helped raise domestic electricity costs, say experts and several Senate Democrats who last December introduced a bill to sharply curb LNG exports with an eye to lowering electricity bills.
Overall, US households spent an extra $12bnon natural gas between January and September last year versus the prior year, which coincided with a 22% jump in LNG exports backed by the Trump administration, according to federal data analyzed by Public Citizen.
Chris Wright, the US energy secretary and a former oil and gas CEO, last fall went to Europe to press the EU for ways to boost LNG exports by cutting or delaying their rules that curb methane. Increasing LNG exports has also been championed by an industry group, the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance that was cofounded in 2008 by multibillionaire fracking mogul Harold Hamm, a major Trump donor and fundraiser, and other industry leaders
In April 2024, Hamm helped organize an elite energy industry dinner at Mar-a-Lago where Trump pitched the CEOs including Wright on donating $1bn for his campaign and pledged a sweeping pro-fossil fuel agenda. Ultimately, fossil fuel interests donated about $75m, including $2m from Hamm, to help Trump win.
The administration’s strong pro-fossil fuel policies seem to have helped spur higher electricity prices which have been outpacing overall inflation rates,…
Read More: More pollution and higher energy costs: critics condemn Trump’s
