Green Tech Leaders Sound Alarm Over Donald Trump’s Threat to US Industry

Green tech leaders are warning that a Donald Trump presidency could decimate the U.S. offshore wind industry, slow the adoption of electric vehicles and threaten the country’s ambition to become a renewable energy superpower that can rival China.

With polls showing the former president running neck and neck with Kamala Harris for the White House, industry and climate organizations are stepping up efforts to boost the vice president’s prospects by hosting donor events, funding campaign ads and speaking out on the political risks to the sector.

“There’s a very real possibility that he’ll just try to destroy the industry, shut everything down, maybe even revoke permits,” said Christopher MacRae Ham, offshore wind manager for energyRe, which is developing a large wind project off the coast of New Jersey with Invenergy, the nation’s largest private renewables developer.

During this week’s presidential debate in Philadelphia, the former president reiterated his support for fossil fuels and skepticism about renewable energy sources, and he also sharply criticized Harris’ energy policies.

“We’re going to go back to windmills and we’re going to go back to solar energy, which would take the whole desert to get some energy,” said Trump, who nonetheless suggested he was a “big fan of solar energy.”

The Republican candidate’s attacks on green energy have unsettled the renewable energy industry, which is racing to secure government approvals, permits and funding before the Nov. 5 election.

Investors are watching the campaign to determine whether hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies provided by the Biden administration could be eliminated if Trump wins. His plan to impose massive tariffs on imports is another major concern because it could further disrupt renewable energy supply chains, they said.

Desmond Wheatley, chief executive of Beam Global, a San Diego-based electric vehicle charging company, told the Financial Times: “Wall Street is convinced that somehow Trump’s win is the final nail in the coffin for companies like ours, which it isn’t. But it does hurt our share price.”

Trump has called climate change a “hoax” and promised to shut down offshore wind “on day one” if elected. He also promised to end the “green new scam” — an apparent reference to the Biden administration’s signature industrial policy, the Inflation Reduction Act.

Mark Brownstein, senior vice president for energy transition at the Environmental Defense Fund, a think tank, said the Trump administration and a complicit Congress would weaken the IRA and billions of dollars in private investment could “wither on the stump.”

“It would be ironic if the Trump administration, in the name of making America great again, were to stall the engine of innovation and investment that is the envy of the world,” he said. “The world is not sitting still, and China continues to lean into green investments to boost its economy.”

EDF and two other climate organizations — the League of Conservation Voters and Climate Power — launched a $55 million ad campaign last month supporting Harris in key battleground states.

Grassroots climate activists like Bill McKibben have organized fundraisers for Harris, while Clean Energy for America, a network of industry leaders and workers, is hosting donor events in Washington and New York.

Meanwhile, Trump has courted oil executives and received about $14 million from the fossil fuel industry, according to campaign finance tracker OpenSecrets.

As president, Trump has lifted restrictions on fossil fuel production and limits on emissions from power plants and vehicles, raised tariffs on clean energy products, reduced the number of offshore wind permits and threatened to end federal support for electric vehicles.

Still, clean-energy installations in the U.S. have expanded during his presidency. Wind capacity increased by 45 percent between 2016 and 2020, while solar capacity more than doubled, according to the Energy Information Administration. The Trump administration finally renewed tax credits for solar, wind and electric vehicle projects.

Some cleantech executives say a Trump administration is unlikely to be able to undo progress made under the Biden administration, as the costs of green technologies are falling rapidly and Democrats and Republicans in Congress would likely block IRA repeal.

Last month, 18 House Republicans signed a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson asking him not to take action to “prematurely repeal energy tax breaks” that support new IRA investments — most of which went to Republican states.

“Even if Trump wins the election, a significant portion of the IRA will likely survive because of the job creation in Republican states,” said Charles Cherington, co-founder of private equity group Ara Partners, which invests in companies working to decarbonize industries.

But others worry that the chaos and uncertainty created by another Trump presidency could stall or derail U.S. efforts to build a resilient domestic clean energy supply chain that can compete with China.

Elaine Borseth, president of the Electric Vehicle Association, a nonprofit that works to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles, said Trump’s proposals to roll out new auto emissions rules that would speed up the adoption of electric vehicles and to provide a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle buyers “definitely raise concerns.”

She added that withdrawing government support for electric vehicles would risk the U.S. economy and domestic automakers falling into a 1970s-style slump, when Japanese and South Korean rivals stole market share from U.S. automakers. This time, “the Chinese will simply take over the electric vehicle market,” Borseth added.