This article was originally published at The Empowerment Alliance and is re-published here with permisson.
The Trump administration’s impressive efforts to reboot traditional, reliable energy in the U.S. are a godsend not only for Americans but for people around the world. Whether reversing Biden-era prohibitions against offshore drilling or fast-tracking permits for natural gas exploration and extraction, President Trump’s devotion to utilizing the most abundant and affordable energy sources on earth will keep Americans prosperous, healthy and free.
But breathing new life into tried-and-true energy resources is only half the battle. Just as important is putting the brakes on the disastrous expansion of so-called renewables like wind and solar when their existence depends on subsidies and other life-support measures. The vaunted “all of the above” approach to energy is reasonable only when “all” are able to compete on a level playing field and demonstrate they are reliable and profitable.
To be sure, there are instances where alternative energy is effective and economically sustainable – particularly at the micro level. Many homeowners have chosen to install rooftop solar panels to assist in their household power needs. Micro wind turbines are being utilized in limited capacity to perform such tasks as pumping water or charging batteries. In both cases, the technology is cost-effective for the intended limited purposes.
But the large-scale wind and solar farms that have sprouted up across the country are almost wholly supported by government subsidies and tax credits. As noted in January by the Institute for Energy Research, “Treasury Department figures show that subsidies for wind and solar dwarf all other energy-related provisions in the tax code, costing $31.4 billion in 2024, and are expected to cost taxpayers $421 billion more between 2025 and 2034 based on the subsidies in the Biden-Harris climate bill.”
The report added, “Federal tax expenditures for the investment tax credit (ITC) and production tax credit (PTC), which are the primary drivers behind the deployment of wind and solar energy, are, by far, the most expensive energy-related provisions in the federal tax code. Between 2025 and 2034, the ITC and PTC will account for more than half of all energy-related tax provisions.”
Those ballooning subsidies and credits are at odds with a government dedicated to shrinking the size of the federal bureaucracy, and they create an unbalanced and non-competitive energy marketplace. To that end, Trump presented a budget outline in early May that slashed subsidies for alternatives and cut billions from “climate change” programs favored by his predecessor.
According to Reuters, in addition to ending most subsidies, the energy budget proposal “cancels more than $15 billion in carbon capture and renewable energy funding” from President Biden’s misleadingly named Inflation Reduction Act of 2021. Also ended would be about $1.3 billion in grants issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for “climate-dominated research.”
The story added, “The plan reorients Energy Department funding toward research and development of technologies that could produce an abundance of oil, gas, coal and critical minerals, nuclear reactors and advanced nuclear fuels, the White House said without further details.”
As of this writing, a battle is raging in Congress about the alternative energy cuts included in Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill. Some Senate Republicans want to extend the length of time before energy credits sunset. As reported by The Hill, the Senate version allows solar and wind farms that begin this year to receive the full credits.
“Before, when the bill was in the House, it demanded that those projects start only 60 days after the bill passed, essentially leaving no time for new clean energy investments,” The Hill reported. “The Senate is also allowing projects that begin construction in 2026 to receive 60% of the credit, in 2027 to receive 20% and in 2028 to receive no credits.”
Trump’s reaction to the more lenient Senate provisions has been unequivocable. “I HATE ‘GREEN TAX CREDITS’ IN THE GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL. They are largely a giant SCAM,” he posted on social media. “Windmills, and the rest of this ‘JUNK’ are the most expensive and inefficient energy in the world, is destroying the beauty of the environment, and is 10 times more costly than any other energy. None of it works without massive government subsidy (energy should NOT NEED SUBSIDY!). Also, it is almost exclusively made in China!!! It is time to break away, finally, from this craziness!!!”
Trump’s bombastic style aside, it’s hard to argue with his main points. Still, political realities – lawmakers worrying about curtailing jobs in their states already underway or in the pipeline – mean a final bill will probably include more subsidies for more years than Trump would prefer.
But even if it’s not ideal, the bill that comes out of the current Congress will still represent a comparative about-face from the draconian mandates, subsidies and credits for alternatives foisted upon us by the Biden administration. However imperfect the coming budget bill might be, our energy future will indeed be big and beautiful compared to what could have been.
Gary Abernathy is a longtime newspaper editor, reporter and columnist. He was a contributing columnist for the Washington Post from 2017-2023 and a frequent guest analyst across numerous media platforms. He is a contributing columnist for The Empowerment Alliance, which advocates for realistic approaches to energy consumption and environmental conservation. Abernathy’s “TEA Takes” column will be published every Wednesday and delivered to your inbox!
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.
The US House group, the Conservative Climate Caucus with over 60 members, has repeatedly endorsed the “all of the above” meme. Pres. Trump has neutered them rather ruthlessly, but those goobers have already sold their souls to the Irregular Irrational Subsidized Energy Lobby. The junkets, the campaign contributions, the jobs for relatives, the bags of cash etc., are just too much for a dis-respectable Congress weasel to refuse.
We need to find some Republican politicians who dislike subsidies for windmills and solar, to replace these “all of the above” Republicans.
“All of the above” Republicans are receiving some personal benefit from supporting taxpayer subsidies to windmills and solar. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be promoting paying out taxpayer subsidies. They are working for themselves, not the American people. They should be replaced with those Republicans who put the American people’s interests first.
It’s worse than you’ve pointed out. We also need to keep in mind that the Administration itself, via the EPA, continues to ramp up its required ‘renewable fuel’ volumes in order to keep the corn state Republicans on board.
Ruinables are the biggest Reverse Robin Hood scheme in human history! Wherever they are installed in large quantities the middle and working classes pay for them, the wealthy investors profit from their fat subsidies, and the local manufacturing sector moves to another country where energy policy hasn’t been driven insane!
I wouldn’t worry too much.
They’re all low paying, short term, monkey tech jobs
Installing
High cost, low value, short lived generation sources
that can’t produce enough value to be profitable without massive government handouts
AND
Can’t produce enough stable / reliable energy to manufacture their own replacements prior to the end of their very short lifespans.
” …. very short lifespans.”
That is why they are called “renewables”. You have to renew them regularly.
The only economic place for wind and solar is not associated with the grid.
I am a home owner who mostly avoids electricity cost after spending on solar panels and batteries. But I still use the grid as my back up. I would need to triple my expenditure in solar and batteries to be independent of the grid and that is not economic for me while I can leech of the grid..
So my grid demand is inevitably parasitic. I usually only draw on the grid when the usual demand is high. So the dispatchable generators need to have the capacity to cover the circumstances when there is no solar (every night); no wind (up to weeks in May or June in Australia) and batteries are all flat (typically 2 hours into the evening peak demand).
Hundreds of thousands of households in Australia are leaning on the grid like this and pay very little for that service.
The only place for intermittent generators that cannot guarantee dispatch on demand is off grid. There are some locations where this is indeed economic due to the high cost of expanding the grid.
Thermal plant runs best when it is up to temperature and near the limit of its generating capacity. Having thermal units ramping up and down to meet the vagaries of weather dependent generators is stupid.
Look up Ambition Strikes. They’re a couple (soon to be a family of 4 when their 2nd child is born) who have built a completely off grid home in North Idaho. For $50,000 USD they installed a solar panel array and enough battery capacity to carry them through two weeks of overcast Idaho winter sky. They’re somewhere around 48° N latitude but the latest technology, bifacial panels they used are efficient enough to work well that far north.
As a backup they have a large military surplus diesel generator that can charge their battery bank from minimum cutoff to full in 5 hours. (They figured that out the first winter with solar.) They also have a propane powered generator connected to it. Then they added more solar and batteries on their “barndominium” with the panels as an awning over their upper level deck, but those face west and get shaded by trees in the evening so that system is mainly a 3rd backup for house power.
Why they chose the off grid thing was because the power company wanted $20,000 USD just to run a power line to their property. Then there would have been the cost of connecting and the never ending bill for electricity. Better to spend more up front (they used savings from various businesses they’d had plus YouTube money) and never owe a power bill, plus if there’s an outage it doesn’t affect them.
How much did the generators cost, what are the cost to maintain the system, any idea what the cost to recycle and replace the system will cost? If for some reason the system is damaged beyond repair what will they do?
I’m willing to bet that the cost of the fuel for those generators is going to exceed the cost they would have been paying for electricity.
Then when you add in the capital cost for that extra $30K in panels, plus the cost of the generators and the cost of maintenance for the whole shebang and the cost of replacing those solar panels and batteries every 15 to 20 years, and you will find that they have wasted a whole lot of money.
$20K for the power line looks small by comparison.
Btw, they must not be using much electricity if they can afford enough batteries for 2 weeks of power.
It doesn’t sound very smart financially speaking. But at least they got to thumb their noses at the power company. Yeeha.
What many people in the urban & suburban areas of the USA fail to comprehend is that 2 of their main requirements of electricity and high speed internet are simply not as readily available once they leave those areas. If they determine that they absolutely must have those things, they have to spend the money on work around solutions.
I’m in northern rural Florida. While I do have both electricity & high speed internet available at my house, the same cannot be said just a mile or two away. The local power company wants you to pay for the infrastructure (poles, wire, transformers, labor, etc.) to send that electricity to you and high speed internet has to come from alternatives to the cable TV company.
Ambition Strikes on the tube is rather amusing entertainment of how they have overcome the obstacles to live in a remote location. With their large investments in solar & generator along with ample batteries for storage, they can plug almost anything like welders and other high current devices to use daily.
When I took an 9 state, 2,600 mile ride on my recumbent pedal tricycle in 2012, I explored alternative energy to power the laptop & phone along the way. Eventually, I decided against the devices available at that time due to cost, bulkiness & weight.
They are also powering high current tools, now I know that they are fake.
Fake? Rather unlikely. The offerings by many of the power stations in the markets of today offer realistic high current uses everything from well pumps to welding. Take a look at Ecoflow as an example. Their Flagship product, the Delta Pro Ultra with Smart Panel offers 6,144 Wh with 120/240 volt output with 7,200 Watts available and can be expanded with other batteries. Can be recharged from the wall, solar or wind and even hydro.
So this setup is no different to what remote mining operations and cattle stations have been doing for over 50 years?
What are bifacial panels, and what makes them efficient?
They are glass on both sides and made with silicon solar cells that can convert light hitting both the top and bottom surfaces. But only one side can receive the direct solar radiation, the other side can only receive reflections from the ground (albedo). How much extra light bifacial modules can actually collect is debatable.
It’s when reality hits the fan. In much of Britain ‘hosepipe bans’ are being issued (with huge fines for the indiscriminate use of water, and this in a small place surrounded by water where household water metering is common, you pay for what you use. If we only had water. We have a few days of sunshine and a raised temperature (that means you can venture out without your overcoat) sometimes in summer). The problem is that we are paying the highest price for our power supplies in the world and certain ameliorating concepts are ruled out by costs. For instance, we are willing to rely on an under supply of reservoirs and to reduce our waterways by abstraction rather than install desalination plants. There could be no potable water problem here but for the price of fuel. Rather, the government finds it expedient to punish water companies for under-performance, a case both of denial and a stick by which to beat private enterprise in the socialist state. The impoverishment of Britain is ridiculous. Our nuclear generation sites are all by the sea, there is a natural synergy by which such generation could be deployed off peak to treat sea water, but that would mean investment in nuclear and a retreat from excessive spending on domestic green energy production. We have a problem where the problem is a problem. More money is needed for mitigation but that conflicts with absorption in one idea to the neglect of all others.
Desalination of seawater is a decades long ago solved problem. Every desalination plant could have its own on-site Small Modular Reactor to power it, with any excess power shunted to the main power grid.
What’s held nuclear power back all its history is whomever originally quipped “too cheap to meter”. That didn’t go down well with the people in charge who want living to be expensive.
Instead we have nuclear power plants that are decades old and are still pretty much unchanged from when they were built. We have idiocies of design like in Fukushima where nuclear power plants depended upon outside power from fossil fuel generators. They’re *nuclear power plants* for cripe’s sake! Especially with several reactors and generators together, the whole setup should have been self powering. Whenever one had to be shut down, its support systems should’ve been powered by the other reactors. In the event of a SCRAM of all the reactors, caused by an earthquake, there should have been some support power method other than generators. An SMR built to not be bothered by an earthquake, and built to be waterproof, could have been that power source.
Germany, the UK, France, etc., are in Chaotic De-growth Mode
https://willempost.substack.com/p/germany-the-uk-france-etc-are-in?r=1n3sit&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
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Europe is in deep trouble because of:
1) Uncontrolled immigration,
2) Economic stagnation, due to excessive-reliance on wind and solar, and expensive energy and materials imports
3) Rising government and personal debt,
4) Increased defense spending, due to a gross lack of defense capability against “enemies”,
5) High youth unemployment, due to a lack of suitable skills, especially among immigrants.
6) Increased spending on expensive household and industrial/commercial electricity and
7) Society-destabilizing, undemocratic censorship.
The Euro elites have forced populations to put up with, and pay for, tens of millions of unvetted walks-ins, who make minimal contributions, cause maximal trouble, crime and chaos, all while sucking from the government tit.
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The woke elites in Europe and the US are pre-maturely closing, already-paid-for, in-good-working-order, nuclear plants.
The woke elites have banned 1) oil and gas fracking projects, 2) gas/oil pipelines, 3) gas/oil storage systems near power plants, and 4) new energy exploration projects, as part of “leaving it in the ground”
.
The US should not bail out Europe by exporting its valuable coal, oil and LNG.
The US should use them to make more products and services for domestic use and exports.
That way the US would reduce imports and increase exports, which would rapidly decrease our decades of wealth/job-sucking trade deficits, and would employ tens of millions of additional US workers, which would strengthen families and communities.
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The very important results of DOGE are not reported by the leftist, USAID-subsidized, Corporate US Media, but the criticisms of DOGE are reported 24/7/365.
The people in New England, the US and Europe are permanently kept in the dark, already for at least 5 decades, or more.
The Social-Media, by gaining eyeballs, is quickly ending the Corporate-Media monopoly, which is losing eyeballs.
But the Euro elites are hell-bent to put social media in straight-jackets ASAP, because they provide a public forum for free speech.
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Coal electricity less costly, available NOW, not pie in the sky, like expensive Fusion and Small Modular Nuclear
Assume mine-mouth coal plant in Wyoming; 1800 MW (three x 600 MW); turnkey-cost $10 b; life 50 y; CF 0.9; no subsidies.
Payments to bank, $5 b at 6% for 50 y; $316 m/y x 50 = $15.8 b
Payments to Owner, $5 b at 10% for 50 y; $504 m/y x 50 = $21.2 b
Lifetime production, base-loaded, 1800 x 8766 x 0.9 x 50 = 710,046,000 MWh
Ignored cost; O&M escalates at 4%; insurance escalates at 4%; periodic overhauls.
For lower electricity cost/kWh, borrow more money, say 70%
Nuclear has similar economics
Wyoming coal, at mine-mouth $15/US ton, 8600 Btu/lb, plant efficiency 40%, Btu/ton = 2000 x 8600 = 17.2 million
Lifetime coal use = 710,046,000,000 kWh/y x (3412 Btu/kWh/0.4)/17,200,000 Btu/US ton = 353 million US ton
Lifetime coal cost = $5.3 billion
Electricity cost = (15.8 + 21.2 + 5.3) x 1,000,000,000/710,046,000,000 = 6 c/kWh
For perspective, China uses 2204.62/2000 x 4300 = 4740 million US ton in 2024
Trade Deficits, Balance-of-Payment Deficits, Debt
Trump is trying to reduce 50 years of trade deficits and balance-of-payment deficits.
Trump is trying to reduce decades of waste fraud and abuse in the federal government, which leads to deficit spending, due to no controls, computers not talking to each other, ancient software systems.
Trump is trying to undo the open border bull crap, DEI bull crap, gender bull crap, etc.
Without a doubt, this means stepping on many people’s toes.
Would you rather have 10 years of 1930s-style depression?
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Deficit spending and printing Treasury bonds to “paper” the deficit is inflationary, because that “out-of-thin-air money” comes with an interest rate and a national debt.
Right now, the interest on the national debt is more than ONE $TRILLION PER YEAR.
That interest is “paid for” with printing more Treasury bonds to “paper” the interest.
On and on it goes, whistling past the graveyard, stretching the rubber band.
.
Very often, many of our wealth/job-sucking trading “partners” use the money of their trade surpluses to: 1) buy Treasury bonds, 2) buy US companies, 3) invest in their own export industries to increase exports, 4) pay benefits to retirees, etc.
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Example of “Rules-Based” Rip-Off
Trading partners charge high prices for auto parts sent to Mexico, then assemble these “expensive” parts in their Mexico assembly plants, then ship whole cars to their dealerships into the US, DUTY FREE.
That way minimal tax is paid on near-zero profits reported in the US, maximum profits are reported in home countries, and maximum taxes are paid on these profits to home governments. Our trading “partners” love this racket.
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All of that has nothing to do with “quantitative easing”, i.e., the Federal Reserve declaring it has money, which it loans to banks and other financial entities that over-extended themselves on issuing dubious loans, such as MBOs, etc.
The US is in very deep debt-do-do. Trading “partners” aim to keep the US in its do-do, while professing “to be helpful”.
The last reservoir to be built in the UK was Carsington in Derbyshire. It opened in 1991. In the 34 years since then the population has grown by 11 million. It is no wonder that several areas are now having to issue hosepipe bans and declare drought conditions.
Roll out the pork barrel
We’ll have a pork barrel of fun
From the article: “Trump’s reaction to the more lenient Senate provisions has been unequivocable. “I HATE ‘GREEN TAX CREDITS’ IN THE GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL. They are largely a giant SCAM,” he posted on social media. “Windmills, and the rest of this ‘JUNK’ are the most expensive and inefficient energy in the world, is destroying the beauty of the environment, and is 10 times more costly than any other energy. None of it works without massive government subsidy (energy should NOT NEED SUBSIDY!). Also, it is almost exclusively made in China!!! It is time to break away, finally, from this craziness!!!”
Are you listening, citizens of the UK? Trump’s words apply to you, too. And to anyone foolish enough to try to power their society with windmills and solar.
More immigrants from third world countries ought to help.
About “micro” applications of “renewables”: drive almost anywhere in seriously rural America and you will find old homesteads and abandoned farmhouses with a windmill for pumping water for the homestead and livestock. Passive solar was incorporated into housing and livestock building location and construction orientation and materials used…but people were more conceptual in their thinking then-even as recently as 70 yrs ago, like my house set up in a sunny E/W/S facing access for solar in the Winter and a blank N side for Winter wind. Trees for cooling.
…even as recently as 70 yrs ago…
And that is a nutshell tell you where renewables belong…
…In a museum.
Renewables are dead, and beginning to smell…
Those with fossil reserves will invent moral reasons for exploiting them and those without will invent moral reason to deploy nuclear power.
Those with ‘renewables’ will cease to be relevant globally
Sigh.
One has to wait so long for the idiots to adopt the bleedingly obvious solutions
I always bet on the men competing in women’s sports.
Building your house so that the energy requirements are minimized only makes sense and has nothing to do with “renewable” energy.
Trump, from over here, is a world class moron whose foreign policy – such as it is – is likely to destroy his own economy.
That some of his domestic policy will actually prove to be the right thing to do (for all the wrong reasons), is at least something.
I get the impression that he is simply doing whatever comes into his head and, lacking the intelligence to see what the consequences are in advance, is simply dealing with them as they become so obvious even a child of two couldn’t miss them.
How blessed it is to be a simple minded creature, unmoved by any thought of ‘what if?’ that might interrupt your self indulgent binge of greed and power.
Well the experiment is in full swing, and if people don’t ultimately get the results that they want, they sure will get the ones that they deserve.
I have stocked up on beer and popcorn to watch the wild west show with the cowboys shooting ever injun in sight!
YeeHa!
Plain popcorn is halal.
The socialists said the same thing about Reagan. Anyone who goes against the dogma is both hated and derided. After all, the socialists know that they are the smartest people in the world, and they have the participation trophies to prove it.
Participation trophies? Ohh-that’s brutal…yuk,yuk.
‘How blessed it is to be a simple minded creature, unmoved by any thought…’
In case you hadn’t noticed, Joe Biden officially left office on January 20, 2025. Of course, he was also likely non compos mentis for the entirety of his term.
The only reason why roof-top solar survives is because of the many subsidies for it. Both in subsidizing the cost of installation and in purchasing the electricity generated at way over its value.
One of my coworkers had solar installed.
He told me once it would take 16 years for it to pay for itself.
But he didn’t install it to save money or the environment.
He had a “survivalist” streak and wanted to still have some power when all else failed.
I live in southern Idaho and a decade ago decided solar was not worth the cost, even with much better solar potential than north Idaho. $50,000 up front? That’s 40 years of my current annual electrical bill, with generous use of lights and AC in a 1700 square foot home. Stupid even before considering maintenance, depreciation and replacement costs, or discount rates and alternative investments.
If “alternative energy” is so good and great, let it prosper or fail on its own, without taxpayer money subsidizing it.
Let people spend their money freely on what they want – and not force them to spend it on what the government thinks they should want.
> But breathing new life into tried-and-true energy resources is only half the battle.
More a case of getting off the chest of tried-and-true energy resources. At least we caught it before it turned into a boot on the neck.
Whenever politicians say they are interested in “saving the earth” I ask them two questions.
How much has CO2 in the atmosphere decreased from government spending?
Do you like spending other people’s money for nothing?
I never get an answer from them when I ask, so they never get my vote.
Regardless of what any Senator or Representative may think we should only spend our money on stuff that works. Wind and solar don’t work, stop spending money on them. Remove all wind and solar from the grid.
We should let the people choose for themselves what stuff to spend money on.
The government definitely does not know best how to spend my money, contrary to what some politicians in the past claimed.
Micro level = niche applications.
Some good places where this stuff is useful, but not grid scale.