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The climate movement is in a “what just happened” mode in the aftermath of the OBBBA. While the full impact remains TBD, the good news is that the rest of the world isn’t directly impacted.
Also keep in mind that despite being considered “climate unfriendly,” it more accurate to say the Trump administration is solar and wind unfriendly. Lost in the wailing and gnashing of teeth is the fact that support for other clean technologies was not eliminated. Nuclear, geothermal and alternative fuels will continue to benefit from tax incentives.
In fact, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to approve the country’s first small nuclear reactor by late 2026 - a 300-MW project for the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The Defense Department has taken a 15% stake in MP Materials, America’s largest rare earth miner. The focus is on securing a supply of rare earth magnets, but improved domestic access to rare earth minerals will also benefit cleantech.
Don’t get me wrong, Trump’s policies will negatively impact the climate. However, as I predicted last November, most of the damage will be the result of changes at the agency level, not because the rug was pulled out from under solar and wind.
Speaking of wind and solar, there’s even good news on that front globally.
Abu Dhabi’s Masdar, and Spain’s Iberdrola plan to jointly invest $6.1 billion to build and offshore wind farm off the coast of the UK. The 1.4-gigawatt project will be one of the largest this decade. If all goes well, it will be completed by the end of next year.
The Gulf States have enjoyed a lengthy run in oil production, but they aren’t resting on their fossil fuel laurels. Saudi Arabia has just awarded $8.3 billion in contracts to local companies to add 15 gigawatts of domestic wind and solar.
That’s not to suggest that the Middle East plans to turn off the oil spigot any time soon. That isn’t - and wasn’t - ever going to happen. Thinking otherwise was is a major miscalculation by the climate movement. As I noted in February, energy transitions take many decades. And by many decades I mean a 100 years.
The transition from wood to coal took around 125 years. It took oil over 100 years to usurped coal. And consider that neither biomass or coal were as imbedded into the global economy as oil is today. Thinking that the world was magically going to move away from oil in a matter of decades was naĂŻve.
That’s why I continually hammer home the point that the climate strategy is flawed and that the overdependence on solar is a mistake. It’s not about any one technology. It’s about developing a holistic approach to reducing the level of carbon in the atmosphere.
#solarpower #climatechange #fossilfuels #oilandgasindustry #windpower