Upon his return to Scotland this July, he emphasized: \u201cWe will not allow a windmill to be built in the United States. They\u2019re killing us\u201d. Trump added Aug. 20 on Truth Social that he \u201cwill not approve\u201d wind or solar projects. \u201cThe days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!\u201d he posted.<\/p>\n
While Trump may not prevent every new wind turbine installed in the U.S., he certainly is trying.<\/p>\n
Apart from a rapid phasedown of tax credits for wind and solar projects in the One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law in July, the Trump administration has ramped up its attacks on wind\u2014and solar\u2014into a full-scale war, including all but banning new wind and solar projects on federal lands and waters, keeping wind turbines away from highways and railroads, investigating turbines for eagle deaths, and, most recently, making it harder for renewables to even qualify for the short-lived credits eliminated after 2027.<\/p>\n
Potentially most onerously, wind or solar projects must now go through three levels of federal review, including personally by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who said in August that \u201cgargantuan, unreliable, intermittent energy projects hold America back from achieving U.S. energy dominance.\u201d These secretary-level reviews include many proposed on private land. Earlier this month, the administration canceled the massive Lava Ridge Wind Project in Idaho, yanking permits approved last year.<\/p>\n
While Trump has long despised wind turbines, he\u2019s only made it a top political priority in 2025. More wind projects were built during Trump\u2019s first term than during the Biden administration. It\u2019s only now though that U.S. power demand is surging\u2014thanks to the AI data center boom\u2014and it\u2019s happening just when renewable energy is being handicapped.<\/p>\n
Average electricity bill costs are up 7% year over year as of May, according to the Department of Energy, and they\u2019re projected to keep rising.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a triumph of polarization over pragmatism,\u201d American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet told Fortune. \u201cWhat is mind-boggling is that, after eliminating the subsidies, the administration has then gone on the attack with federal mandates and buckets of red tape to actively oppose projects being built.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Executive \u2018double-cross\u2019<\/p>\n
The last-minute compromise in the \u201cBig Beautiful Bill\u201d focused on keeping the renewable energy tax credits in place for now\u2014but quickly phasing them out.<\/p>\n
To qualify, projects must break ground by July 4, 2026, or be completed by the end of 2027. The key is really on breaking ground by next summer because few started after July 2026 are likely to finish by year-end 2027.<\/p>\n
As soon as the omnibus spending law was passed, the Trump administration went to work making it harder to qualify for the tax credits\u2014specifically what counts as breaking ground. Those revised rules were finalized on Aug.15.<\/p>\n
It used to be that developers only had to pay 5% of the costs up front to lock in the tax credits. Instead, the 5% rule is eliminated for all but small solar farms, requiring all others to demonstrate that \u201cphysical work of a significant nature\u201d has begun on or off-site, such as foundation excavation.<\/p>\n
Grumet calls it a \u201cdouble-cross\u201d to immediately change the rules after reaching a deal that was already tough on the clean power sector. \u201cThis is basically an \u2018America Last\u2019 energy policy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The fear was the administration would change the rules even more dramatically, but some Republican senators\u2014including John Curtis of Utah and Chuck Grassley of Iowa\u2014threatened holds on confirming some Trump nominees until the rules were released. After all, most new wind and solar farms are being built in so-called red states.<\/p>\n
Also troublesome for the industry are new foreign-sourcing rules that penalize projects for using Chinese parts in a renewables industry dominated by Chinese supply chains.<\/p>\n
Other regulatory aspects are potentially worse for the industry too. For instance, Burgum\u2019s Interior Department went a step further on Aug. 1 to also include \u201cenhanced\u201d reviews for power line transmission projects that are deemed to help enable wind or solar projects.<\/p>\n