Trump Republicans have declared war against America’s clean energy economy

In the nine months since returning to office, President Donald Trump has systematically halted the growth of America’s clean energy economy, installing a cabinet of fossil fuel insiders and implementing a backward-leaning energy agenda that serves the interests of his political allies and billionaire campaign donors, according to a comprehensive new report from Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project.

The investigation, titled “Trump’s Polluter Playground,” reveals that of 111 executive branch nominees and appointees charged with the nation’s energy and environmental policymaking, 43 have direct ties to the fossil fuel industry.

The report documents a government-wide effort to dismantle environmental protections, slash funding for renewable energy, and aggressively promote coal, oil and gas development, even as the rest of the world accelerates its transition to clean energy.

“The officials running Trump’s second administration, as well as Trump himself, have been far swifter and more aggressive in enacting favors for allies in the fossil fuel and mining industries,” wrote report authors Alan Zibel of Public Citizen and Toni Aguilar Rosenthal of the Revolving Door Project. “They have also set in motion an avalanche of attacks on Trump’s perceived enemies and the industries he disfavors, including renewable energy.”

The report identifies a pattern of placing industry veterans in positions of power over the agencies meant to regulate them. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, the former CEO of fracking firm Liberty Energy, has redirected federal loan programs to fund coal investments while downplaying climate science. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who now chairs Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council, has moved to open millions of acres of public lands to drilling while attacking wind and solar projects.

At the Environmental Protection Agency, Administrator Lee Zeldin has launched what he called “a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion” by proposing to repeal the agency’s landmark 2009 endangerment finding, which provides the legal basis for regulating greenhouse gases. The agency has simultaneously laid off thousands of workers and eliminated its scientific research office.

The consequences of this agenda are already being felt. The administration has halted offshore wind projects threatening thousands of jobs, terminated a $4.9 billion loan guarantee for a major transmission project, and revoked permits for renewable energy developments across the country.

Meanwhile, the Republican-backed budget bill passed in July repealed most clean energy incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act while providing new subsidies to the already heavily subsidized fossil fuel industry.

The report concludes that these actions will have lasting consequences: “Weakened climate stability, stalled clean energy innovation, badly damaged scientific research capacity, and increased pollution” that will “long outlast Trump’s second term.”

As the administration continues what one official called “white glove service” for corporate polluters, the report suggests America is losing ground in the global race for clean energy leadership, leaving consumers and the planet to pay the price.