{"id":658960,"date":"2026-08-28T00:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T00:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=658960"},"modified":"2026-08-28T00:55:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T00:55:00","slug":"trumps-energy-policy-could-cost-us-540-gw-of-renewables-says-nrdc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=658960","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Energy Policy Could Cost US 540 GW Of Renewables, Says NRDC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump’s Energy Policy Could Cost US 540 GW Of Renewables, Says NRDC<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

By Diana DiGangi of UtilityDive<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Aspects of the Trump administration\u2019s energy policy – such as the rollback of Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, the introduction of new tariffs and offshore wind lease buybacks – could cause the U.S to lose between 390 GW and 540 GW of new wind, solar and energy storage capacity over the next decade<\/strong>, according to projections from the Natural Resources Defense Council.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCrucially, these lost projects are not actually replaced with other sources of new power,\u201d the NRDC said in a Wednesday report. \u201cAt most, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>only 9 GW of additional gas capacity<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> is added with Trump\u2019s policies in place.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The report cited near-term supply chain bottlenecks for gas turbines<\/a>, volatile fuel prices, \u201cand the general cost-competitiveness of new renewables relative to gas\u201d as reasons for the NRDC\u2019s low estimate for new additional gas investment.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

An August report from Global Energy Monitor counts <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>189 GW of gas-fired capacity<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> currently in the announced, pre-construction, and construction phases in the U.S., a number which \u201cnearly doubled\u201d in the first half of the year, \u201cbut uncertainty persists about how and when this capacity gets built.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTwo-thirds of gas-fired capacity in development globally, and more than half of projects tied to data centers, do not have a named turbine\/engine manufacturer,\u201d <\/strong>Global Energy Monitor said. \u201cNearly one-quarter of projects earmarked for data centers do not have a named start year. Turbine supply constraints, financing uncertainty, local data center moratoriums, and mounting public opposition leave the true scale of the gas power buildout uncertain.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Amanda Levin, NRDC\u2019s director of policy analysis, said during a Tuesday press call that the group\u2019s modeling still anticipates \u201csignificant growth in renewables under this administration. B<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>ut we don\u2019t go nearly as far, and we lose more than half of everything that we expected to be able to build with the combination of market forces and proactive policy.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Both Levin and the Global Energy Monitor report noted that due to order backlogs for gas turbines for combined-cycle plants, developers who need to bring firm power online quickly are turning to alternatives like simple-cycle or reciprocating engine plants, which \u201care less efficient than combined-cycle plants and carry higher emissions per unit of electricity generated,\u201d Global Energy Monitor said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Levin said this trend supports the NRDC\u2019s position that the <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s gas power plant emissions rule should not be repealed<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, though the Trump administration has announced its intention to do so.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The trend \u201chighlights actually the value of these types of standards \u2026 which is that the market is not acting in a perfectly rational economic way,\u201d she said. \u201cThese types of regulations could prevent this type of highly polluting type of power generation by requiring us to think about how we are building out this gas that we\u2019re trying to build over the next few years to meet this growing load.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The NRDC\u2019s report also forecast an increase in power costs due to a need to \u201crely more heavily on the existing, higher-cost legacy fossil fuel system\u201d in absence of new renewables generation. The power sector will spend $5 billion to $15 billion more on fossil fuels, the NRDC said, while claiming $45 billion less in IRA tax incentives, relative to the group\u2019s January 2025 Snapshot case.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBy 2035, average household electricity rates are projected to increase by an additional 4.2% to 5.5% nationwide, relative to the January 2025 Snapshot case,\u201d the NRDC\u2019s report said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 08\/27\/2026 – 20:55<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump’s Energy Policy Could Cost US 540 GW Of Renewables, Says NRDC By Diana DiGangi of UtilityDive Aspects of the Trump administration\u2019s energy policy – such as the rollback of Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, the introduction of new tariffs and offshore wind lease buybacks – could cause the U.S to lose between 390 GW… Continue reading Trump’s Energy Policy Could Cost US 540 GW Of Renewables, Says NRDC<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":658961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-658960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=658960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/658961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=658960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=658960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=658960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}