The Trump administration’s rollback of clean energy initiatives and focus on expanding U.S. domination of natural gas exports is set to transform U.S. and global energy markets for decades to come.

Some experts warn U.S. divestment from clean energy risks increasing consumer prices, slowing down innovation and ultimately undermining competitiveness in key industries.

These worries are exacerbated by predictions that energy usage and prices are expected to skyrocket in the coming years.

“If you are concerned about resource adequacy for meeting growth in electricity demand, you want all hands on deck, right?” said Jon Elkins, a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy.

“You would want all technologies to be part of the solution set, and the technologies that can be built out the fastest … are wind and solar and batteries.”

President Trump, however, has taken a different approach.

“Any State that has built and relied on WINDMILLS and SOLAR for power are seeing RECORD BREAKING INCREASES IN ELECTRICITY AND ENERGY COSTS. THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!” he wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. “We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar. The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!”

Since his return to the White House, Trump has aimed to increase the production and exports of fossil fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), and to boost nuclear and geothermal energy to surge supply.

His landmark budget bill enacted major cuts in the growing clean energy sector, especially in wind and solar energy, by phasing out green energy subsidies implemented by former President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

For Elkins, who was also an Obama-era assistant secretary for international affairs at the Energy Department, Trump’s efforts to “unleash” American energy

© The Hill