Since returning to the White House, Donald Trump has sought to curb renewable energy in favour of fossil fuels, calling wind and solar the "scam of the century." His One Big Beautiful Bill Act slashed tax credits on green investments introduced under Joe Biden, the US pulled out of the Paris climate agreement for a second time, and approvals for more than 150 onshore wind projects have stalled.
Yet America's green energy build-out has proved remarkably resilient. In 2025, US utilities generated a record amount of electricity from renewable sources, and S&P Global Energy forecasts a record 45 gigawatts of clean-energy capacity to be added this year. Global green-energy stocks have mostly outperformed oil and gas counterparts since Trump's second inauguration.
The economics of green power are proving harder to overturn than the policies supporting it. Solar panels, wind turbines and batteries have become increasingly competitive, leaving renewables among the cheapest sources of new US electricity even without subsidies. New solar and wind projects also take under two years to build, compared with at least three for gas. Trump's own actions have strengthened the case, too: after US strikes on Iran in late February sent fuel prices surging, more American households have shown interest in residential solar and electric vehicles.
The AI boom adds further pressure, with data centres projected to consume as much as 12 per cent of total US electricity by 2028. That demand has pushed up the cost of new gas plants, strengthening the case for faster-to-deploy green alternatives. The president's crackdown has not been harmless, and policy uncertainty will persist, but the case for green energy increasingly rests on cheaper, faster and more secure power rather than climate moralising.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing