By Richard Valdmanis
(Reuters) – Donald Trump’s return to the White House will refocus the nation’s energy policy onto maximizing oil and gas production and away from fighting climate change, but the Republican win in Tuesday’s presidential elections is unlikely to dramatically slow the U.S. renewable energy boom.
That is because a Biden-era law providing a decade of lucrative subsidies for new solar, wind and other clean energy projects would be near-impossible to repeal, thanks to support from Republican states, while other levers available to the next president would only have marginal impact, analysts say.
“I don’t think a Trump president can slow the transition,” said Ed Hirs, Energy Fellow at the University of Houston. “This is well underway.”
Renewable energy sources like solar and wind are the fastest growing segments on the power grid, according to the Department of Energy, driven by federal tax credits, state renewable energy mandates, and technology advancements that have lowered their costs.
President Joe Biden in 2022 signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act guaranteeing billions of dollars of solar and wind subsidies for another decade as part of his broader…
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