To borrow a term from the late English economist and philosopher John Maynard Keyes, President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory has reawakened optimistic “animal spirits” of the U.S. energy-driven economy that has been badly wounded by Biden administration fossil fuel regulations in favor of green subsidy fetishes. [emphasis, links added]
Not only have costly climate-crazed Democrat energy policies ramped up inflation, but enormous fields of solar and wind farms have also harmed ecosystems and wildlife populations.
For example, ESI Energy, owned by utility giant NextEra Energy acknowledged in 2022 that its wind turbines had killed at least 150 bald and golden eagles.
The Los Angeles Times recently reported that Avantus, a company developing a 2,300-acre California Mojave Desert solar farm, had government approval to chain-saw thousands of nearly extinct Joshua trees.
Expect a returned Trump administration and GOP Congress to challenge the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 that has led the federal government to subsidize as much as 70% of the costs of those wind and solar charities typically offered in the form of tax credits.
According to Treasury Department estimates, IRA climate subsidies —including de facto EV mandates — are projected to wind up costing taxpayers $1 trillion by 2032, all without any meaningful assessments mandated under the National Environmental Policy Act whenever a “major public action” affects environmental quality.
Although Trump has promised to claw back unspent IRA money, he will likely have to wrestle with some Congressional Republicans who signed an Aug. 18 letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., supporting tax credits in their districts from getting nixed in the mix.
The 18 Republican signatories urged GOP leadership to preserve some provisions in the bill, arguing most particularly that repealing tax credits for projects that have already broken ground “would undermine private investments and stop development that is already ongoing.”
So far, the Biden administration has awarded $90 billion in grants to climate and renewable energy projects, accounting for about three-quarters of the bill’s grant funding.
Trump, who has pledged to overhaul oil and gas regulations and scale back green energy subsidies, said during an Oct. 18 Detroit campaign event, “We will frack, frack, frack, and drill, baby, drill.”
After all, he made that happen before.
In 2018, under Trump’s previous term, the United States achieved record amounts of crude to become a net oil exporter for the first time in 75 years, thereafter topping 13.1 million barrels per day in March 2020.
Regulatory uncertainty under the Biden administration has frustrated oil and gas investments.
Last year President Biden temporarily paused U.S. liquified natural gas (LNG) export approvals, which a federal judge overturned in July in demanding immediate reinstatement.
The current administration also decreased oil and gas lease sales on federal lands from more than 4,000 issued during Trump’s first three years in office to a little over 1,400 under Biden while also bolstering bond and royalty payments for production on government properties.
As reported in the Epoch Times, thanks to expectations following the election that that Trump will eliminate or curtail various IRA subsidies, “a plethora of renewable-energy stocks tanked, from First Solar (negative 14 percent) to SunRun (negative 18 percent).”
US Energy Sector, Green Policies Are Set For Big Changes After Trump Win.
The President-elect has pledged more oil and gas production, regulatory overhaul, and scaling back of green energy subsidies.
That could have far-reaching impacts in the energy sector, and beyond. pic.twitter.com/Wwa3hkK7E9
— Epoch Times Print Edition (@EpochTimesPrint) November 13, 2024
Many electric vehicle companies that were struggling before the elections now face fatal consequences.
High-profile EV SUV producer Fisker and bus manufacturer Arrival filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, and Swedish-based battery maker Northvolt filed for Chapter 2 bankruptcy after BMW canceled a big EV order.
Privately-held Northvolt was one of the EV’s most stunning economic implosions after having raised about $15 billion to make lower carbon footprint batteries from prominent investors including Volkswagen, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and the European Union.
Even shares of more stable startups such as Rivian Automotive and Lucid Group are down by nearly half this year.
Rivian recently received conditional approval for a government loan of up to $6.6 billion, with investors reportedly worried that this offer will evaporate if not received before President-elect Trump’s Inauguration Day.
A Wall Street Journal analysis of 54 publicly traded EV and battery startups shows that seven have already filed for bankruptcy.
And of 36 operational companies with sufficient data for analyses, three-quarters of them are losing money and 13 are projected to run out of cash by next summer.
Meanwhile, the $5 billion taxpayer handout Congress passed to boost EV popularity with a national network of charging ports under the so-called 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law hasn’t worked out quite as successfully as promised either.
Read rest at Newsmax
