What Donald Trump's Presidency Means For The Green Energy Sector

Forbes

America’s power grids need more of everything.  For decades, electric generation has simply kept pace with the nation’s economic growth. That's set to change as cloud computing giants ramp up construction of data centers to meet demand for online services like artificial intelligence leader OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In other words, electric generation must now grow faster than the economy. Utility company AEP anticipates robust demand growth, particularly in states like Indiana, where it projects as much as a 60% increase in commercial electricity demand in coming years, mostly from data centers, like the $11 billion project Amazon is erecting in New Carlisle, the largest capital project in state history.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2024/11/14/10-reasons-why-trump-20-wont-kill-the-green-revolution/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, why Trump 2.0 won't kill the green energy revolution.

00:07Don't overestimate the damage that President-elect Donald Trump's energy policy could do to the global green transition.

00:14Yes, he has promised to undo the Democrats' 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, deriding it on the campaign trail as a, quote,

00:22green new scam for its $500 billion in tax credits and other subsidies for renewable energy projects.

00:29Cleantech companies and their backers understandably fear losing benefits like an investment tax credit worth up to 30%,

00:37or sometimes even 50%, of a project's costs.

00:40And both environmental groups and investors in clean energy stocks have reacted with alarm to Trump's triumph.

00:47But repeal of the IRA is hardly a done deal, given that most of those projects have been bringing jobs and investment dollars to Republican-held congressional districts.

00:57Cleantech could even benefit from some other Trump policies, like cutting both the corporate tax rate and red tape,

01:03including time-consuming environmental reviews that hold up the siting of green projects and electricity transmission lines.

01:11And here's the most important reason green energy should still thrive during Trump 2.0.

01:16The industry is past the point of liftoff.

01:19Subsidies add extra rocket fuel and are important for the most novel technologies that aren't yet commercial.

01:25But they aren't absolutely necessary for the green revolution to continue.

01:29Economics, customers, and the surging demand for electricity, particularly from all the new data centers being built to serve the needs of artificial intelligence,

01:39will continue to drive the growth of alternative energy.

01:43Over the weekend, President-elect Trump said he would nominate oil and gas executive and CEO of Liberty Energy, Chris Wright, as secretary of the Department of Energy.

01:53Before he was nominated for the post, Wright told Forbes,

01:58To make the world a better place, you need more reliable, affordable, secure energy.

02:03We want abundant, cheap energy.

02:06Still, Wright conceded,

02:15It's worth noting that, like other oil industry players, Denver-based Liberty,

02:20a $4.5 billion-in-revenue oilfield services company, is itself dabbling in green energy.

02:27It has invested in advanced nuclear startup Oklo, as well as Fervo, a startup aiming to tap zero-carbon deep geothermal energy using fracking.

02:37Billionaire climate tech investor Tom Steyer of Galvanized Capital argues,

02:42Our ability to solve this problem profitably is better than anybody understands.

02:47Speaking a month before the election at the Forbes Sustainability Leaders Summit,

02:52Steyer pointed to data showing 86% of all new electricity generation equipment deployed worldwide last year is powered by renewables.

03:01Steyer said,

03:04Nobody in Vietnam put up a solar panel because they were worried about climate-change-induced flooding in Houston.

03:09Nobody did that to be nice.

03:11Steyer implied that they did that because it's cheap.

03:15Consider China, now the world's largest car market, where more than half of sales are electric vehicles.

03:21Steyer said,

03:33Cheaper, faster, better. It goes up like a rocket. Everybody buys it, and that is how you win at capitalism.

03:40If the United States doesn't want to participate in it, and we want to draw a moat around the United States and go back to the 1950s,

03:46the rest of the world will progress. They will succeed, and we will fail.

03:52Make no mistake, fossil fuel producers are among the big winners from the November 5th results.

03:57For example, former Representative Lee Zeldin, Trump's nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency,

04:03is sure to take an axe to the EPA's new methane rule, which was finalized just last week,

04:08which would fine oil and gas drillers billions a year for fugitive releases of natural gas.

04:14But there are lots of reasons alternative energy will do just fine.

04:18As we said, one major reason is that green energy, like wind and solar, is already cheap.

04:24And then there's a political reason.

04:26An impressive 80% of Inflation Reduction Act benefits so far have gone to Republican congressional districts.

04:34For full coverage, and to see a list of 10 reasons why Trump 2.0 won't kill the Green Revolution,

04:39check out Christopher Hellman's piece on Forbes.com.

04:44This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

04:54Thanks for tuning in.

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