The Economic Benefits Of Renewables That Trump Is Ignoring

Remember when the JFK declared that innovation wasn’t easy — but it was necessary? He described how organizing and measuring the best of our energies and skills would be a challenge that we were willing to accept. Innovation like this asks people to reinvent themselves — it’s a contemporary adaptation technique. Yet our opinion-is-all president doesn’t believe in science — it’s difficult, involves close reading, and requires attention to detail.

Not his skill set. But you’d think he’d be compelled by the economic benefits of renewables, right? Nope. No renewables for this administration.



Big Oil spent an extraordinary amount — $445 million — throughout the last election cycle to influence Donald Trump and Congress, according to advocacy group Climate Power. Trump is a transactional player who’s always looking for a financial edge, and Big Oil offered him a carrot he couldn’t refuse. Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, and his colleagues describe in a 2025 article in the journal Environmental Science and Technology how air pollution, global warming, and energy insecurity are three major problems facing the world.

Nonetheless, since his return to the White House, Trump has pulled out of the Paris agreement for a second time. A 25% tariff on cars assembled outside the US took effect today. His executive orders have attempted to halt offshore wind projects, among other renewable energy projects.

The tech industry will feel significant effects from the Trump tariffs, as economists are warning that the tariffs are likely to spur one of the largest shifts in global trade in decades. It will result in higher consumer costs and additional inflation. Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs raised the probability of a US recession in the next 12 months from an original prediction of 20% up to 35%.

While tech imports of semiconductors are exempt from the tariffs — at least for right now — the past month has already been “chaos” for importers and shippers as they’re left uncertain if their goods will arrive, and, if they do, what duty costs they’ll incur. However, all is not lost. The current Trump administration’s failure of energy imagination is being offset with an intensive push for renewables.

Okay, maybe it’s not taking place at the federal level. But more and more business leaders and financiers are seeing the long term common sense of renewable energy generation. The global energy market is the largest market in the world, and the economic benefit of renewables is an essential component of this energy marketplace.

All indicators point to a world in which we live in a net zero economy. Renewable energy provides many direct and indirect economic benefits. Power capacity: An amazing amount of power capacity was added to the grid in 2024 from renewable energy sources: 92.

5%. Overall, 585 gigawatts (GW) of new power capacity was added from renewables, leading to 4,448 GW of total power capacity. Those 585 GW also represent 15.

1% annual growth, which the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) indicates was record growth. Renewables already account for 20% of the nation’s electricity. And, from an economic standpoint, a 2023 Lazard report shows that new solar and wind projects are less expensive than running many existing coal and gas plants.

Ecological costs continue to mount: We build wind and solar farms for less money and produce lots fewer amounts of pollution than those powered by coal and natural gas. The counternarrative that renewables are inconsistent will lose its grip as battery prices continue to drop and storage becomes the norm. Already battery prices dropped by 85% over the last decade.

Wait ’til renewables have established infrastructures: The cost of solar panels has decreased by 90% and wind turbines by 70%, all within the last 10 years. Investments will accelerate the infrastructures that support renewables. States with renewable portfolio standards will then be able to offer reduced electricity prices.

Forget the subsidies: Fossil fuels benefit from substantial direct and indirect subsidies, causing them to seem artificially inexpensive. Right now, there are few mechanisms to compensate for the harm that fossil fuels cause, but a halt to subsidizing the fossil fuel energy industry is one very profound solution. Renewables help to alleviate climate change: The cost of a changing climate is expensive.

The current administration’s strategy is to increase domestic fossil fuel production and downplay the threat of climate change. Moreover, the insistence on radical tariffs has caused insurers to boost their anticipated costs of climate claims, which is further upsetting the industry, individuals, and homeowners. Renewables don’t emit carbon nor warm the planet.

Factor in health costs: Renewable energy generation is much less expensive than fossil fuels when health costs are part of the equation . A 2021 Harvard study estimated that fossil fuel-related air pollution costs the economy $820 billion annually due to healthcare expenses and lost productivity. End-use energy reductions: Countries that successfully eliminate fossil fuels and biomass combustion through renewables and efficiency gains by 2050 can reduce their end-use energy needs by more than 54% and save money in the process.

Respected businesses have an existing decarbonization plan: Individual technical options, or “pathways,” for decarbonizing specific industries are necessary and have already gained momentum . Many prominent global companies have net zero goals by 2050: in 2020 it was just 8%, and now it is 45% of the Fortune 500. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are among the most proactive companies that have defined net zero goals.

John Kerry, former Biden administration climate envoy, says that Trump’s attempts to undermine the energy transition will harm US efforts in global infrastructure and manufacturing. As it refutes the place for renewables in the US energy mix, the US will allow China to dominate the manufacturing of clean energy products like solar panels and wind turbines. In reaction to this week’s Trump tariffs, China’s government said it would “safeguard its own rights and interests.

” It has many options — such as enacting high tariffs right back at the US. It could limit future US investment in China ( ie.no more foreign competition for Tesla in China ).

It could restrict exports on rare earth minerals. Kerry’s conclusions were shared at The Economist’s Energy Transition Summit in London last month. “There’s a big marketplace out there, and America needs to compete.

America needs to be in the hunt for those technologies, and I think the president’s goal of being first in class means that these [renewable] technologies require that we continue to be researching, building, and deploying. Even on the emotional scale, if you want to beat China, you better be doing this. You need to be producing better products that are gonna be in demand around the world.

It’s something that I don’t think we should just give up.” Kerry, the 81-year-old diplomatic and former US presidential candidate, joined asset-management firm Galvanize Climate Solutions last year, as co-executive chair alongside billionaire Tom Steyer and investor Katie Hall. Galvanize is a multi-strategy firm that invests in the business of decarbonization.

Companies are already making a “healthy return on investment” with their climate-focused portfolios, Kerry continued. “And that’s powerful as more people become aware of the size of this market and the scope of opportunity.” CleanTechnica's Comment Policy LinkedIn WhatsApp Facebook Bluesky Email Reddit.