Democrats face a new energy era
Democrats who woke up to an avalanche of executive orders from President Donald Trump Tuesday morning are scrambling to strike back against the White House’s new fossil fuel-focused "energy dominance" regime.
Their biggest concern after wading through the mountain of paperwork the Trump team dumped Monday night? Efforts to kill offshore wind and stymie renewable energy growth.
Trump’s executive order blocking all leasing, permitting and approvals for new offshore wind could spell disaster for the nascent industry that was already struggling economically under Biden. Wind giant Ørsted, which has its hands in all three currently operating U.S. offshore wind farms and several in development, saw shares plunge as much as 17 percent early Tuesday morning from the bleak outlook and a new writedown, leading shares in wind companies lower.
As the minority party on Capitol Hill, Democrats have little power to directly fight the executive branch’s moves, but members at least tried to claw back the narrative around clean energy and climate change Tuesday. Several Democratic lawmakers expressed their dismay to our Josh Siegel, arguing the EOs blocking clean energy and attempting to defund the IRA in particular will only hurt U.S. power production and put the U.S. at a disadvantage on the global stage.
“It’s not just that he’s promoting fossil fuels — he’s going to create an energy shortage,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said. “The suspension of offshore wind is going to increase prices. This is not ‘all of the above.’ This is eliminating American energy sources because he’s got preferences. This guy is going to raise the price of electricity by killing a bunch of cheap energy that we all need in order to power our country.”
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said the EOs may impact how he votes on the president’s pending nominees for the departments of Interior and Energy. Though nominees Doug Burgum and Chris Wright are expected to glide through the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this week, Padilla pointed out that the EOs are in total conflict with how the nominees described the administration’s priorities during their confirmation hearings.
“It was completely against what his secretary of Energy nominee said in terms of unleashing American energy [at his confirmation hearing],” said Padilla. “Renewable energy sources are the epitome of prioritizing energy independence and national security.”
In a detailed letter sent to the president Tuesday afternoon, nine leaders of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition renounced, point by point, Trump’s suite of executive orders aimed at eliminating climate, clean energy and environmental protection provisions and boosting fossil fuels.
The lawmakers argued that rolling back environmental protections and blocking clean energy expansion will only raise the costs of climate change and increase polluted air and water for everyone.
“We are committed to working with your Administration to accomplish [on shared goals] … but we will fight back against your efforts to dismantle the federal response to climate change, gut our bedrock pollution regulations, and run roughshod over landmark environmental protections,” the letter read.