Trump Wants to Unleash Energy, as Long as It’s Not Wind or Solar…

Legal experts said the president was testing the boundaries of executive power with aggressive orders designed to stop the country from transitioning to renewable energy.

NYT Today

Glory, glory, hallelujah! Going deeper and deeper…

On Monday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that halted the disbursement of funds designated for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA was anticipated to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for clean energy and various climate initiatives, including incentives for electric vehicles, wind, solar, hydrogen, and nuclear power projects. The suspension of this funding initiative could have significant implications for numerous climate and energy programs, particularly those related to wind energy.

This decision marks a notable shift in North American energy policy, with potential profound effects on the renewable energy sector. It may impede the progress of both ongoing and future projects, adversely affect job creation, and temporarily restrict investment in the energy industry. The ramifications of this decision are likely to induce substantial changes that could influence both domestic and international market dynamics, potentially resulting in detrimental ripple effects in other regions.

Concurrently, President Trump has underscored the importance of maintaining affordable energy prices. On the same day, he signed several executive orders aimed at enhancing fossil fuel production and alleviating regulatory constraints on the energy sector to achieve this objective. The administration posits that increasing domestic energy production will contribute to lowering energy prices and fostering economic growth.

Conversely, European Union President Ursula von der Leyen expressed firm support for renewable energy at the recent World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, yesterday. Her stance aligns closely with the principles of the “2030 Agenda”, which seeks to ensure universal access to modern energy, enhance the utilization of renewable energy, improve energy efficiency, promote clean energy research and technology, and expand energy services in developing nations. These initiatives are designed to combat climate change, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and promote sustainable development, which stands in opposition to President Trump's perspective on renewable energy. Von der Leyen emphasized that clean energy represents a mid-term solution due to its cost-effectiveness, capacity to generate quality domestic jobs, and ability to bolster energy independence. She also noted that Europe produces more electricity from wind and solar sources than from all fossil fuels combined.

Yes, we are simply observing two distinct perspectives on the energy industry. But, like Trump, von der Leyen firmly asserts the importance of maintaining affordable energy prices.

The challenges facing the energy sector extend beyond the immediate concerns. Since the onset of the Ukraine invasion, Russia's support for China within the energy domain has intensified. China has emerged as a vital energy ally for Russia, significantly increasing its imports of oil, coal, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and pipeline gas. This evolving partnership is fundamentally altering global energy dynamics, with profound implications for energy security and geopolitical relations.

Conversely, the United States has been augmenting its exports of oil and gas with the objective of diminishing global reliance on antagonistic energy providers, particularly those from Russia and the Middle East (Iran). Currently, the U.S. holds the position of the foremost producer of natural gas and is the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Nevertheless, this strategic approach introduces new vulnerabilities, including price volatility and geopolitical complexities.

Finally, given the complex geopolitical situation, a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine does not seem likely anytime soon, as highlighted by analyses of this blog over the past months.

The Owner of Non-Man and Other Tales… Second edition, revised and expanded…

Help us make a dream come true…

From a young age we listen to the instructions of the elderly in the sense that we must be able to choose our path in life. It's a nice metaphor.

There are those who, complying with this, prepare themselves to travel the highways of life, provide themselves with fast engines and soft seats. Others, simpler, choose secondary roads where the speed does not produce so much vertigo and the tolls are cheaper. Many have to join forces and travel the kilometers in collective buses that force the touches and strident music. And there are too many who have no other option than to walk along the humble paths crossing puddles or boulders and threatened by wild beasts or insects. This is the vineyard of the Lord, and everyone can make use of their free will. Say.

Reading the stories of Germán Toro Ghio one discovers that there are also those who chose all paths. And they also added the alternatives of lifts, elevators (and descenders), cliffs, flying devices and perhaps how many more.

With its eight stories, The Owners of No Man's Land takes us to a world so real that, unfortunately, we tend to forget it. From the first story, he (Germán) rides the maelstrom of a roller coaster in which he mixes the discomforts of a Moscow hotel with the adventures in the Nicaraguan jungle. He is a de facto witness to the invasion of the USA army in Panama and his cousin of millenary stubbornness at the same time, without us being able to deduce which of the two experiences was more dangerous. He celebrates supposed birthdays in the company of an aphonic Fidel Castro (what a contradiction!) in a city of Havana corroded by sea salt or political blunders. He walks through one of the most unusual borders in the world, the one that divides the island of Hispaniola. He witnesses the sun sheltering us with unusual loves, in this case, his friend "Pepe" who, on a streak of good fortune, attracts them to a stale gypsy princess and a one-eyed gypsy king in the nights of Madrid and prologues his luck in the world of love to an island called Grinda in the Stockholm archipelago where Alexander's honey captivates.

Germán also takes us to a café in Paris where Ernest Hemingway is in existential conversations about life, accompanied by the sweet notes of a Santa Teresa rum, which invades the soul with harmony and helps the journalist and writer try to persuade some young gang members to change the course of their lives, in this world of violence, organ trafficking, and arms. He evokes the spirit of the Nicaraguan poet and priest Ernesto Cardenal, particularly in his mesmerising "Ode to Marilyn Monroe". This remarkable work invites him to explore the labyrinth of the mind's afflictions, guided by the brushstrokes of legendary artists such as Sorolla, Munch, Botero, and Modigliani. Alongside this artistic journey, we encounter the candid whispers of Truman Capote in his poignant "Unanswered Prayers", which lays bare the frailties of our contemporary society, political systems, and monarchies. Ultimately, Germán leads us to a heartwarming conclusion with the charming figure of "il Nono", a grandfatherly character we all wish we could have known.

The book is magnified by experiences that have taken place outside the battlefields, far from palaces and ambitions. In other words, the principle of freedom of expression is paramount, even when individuals may endure defamation's repercussions. With these stories, Germán Toro Ghio allows us to taste something of everything he keeps in his cupboard, and I hope he will continue to cook and deliver in successive books.

*Juan Forch, Puerto Octay, Chile

*Film director, writer, and political scientist is renowned for the 1990 "NO" campaign. / https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/movies/oscar-nominated-no-stirring-debate-in-chile.html

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O gods, women, and men with the souls of gods and goodwill, we request your solidarity and support for launching the second revised and extended edition of "The Owner of Non-Man Lan and Other Tales" in November 2025. We have already contacted a senior editor at Penguin Random House in London to help us create a remarkable and distinctive book handcrafted to serve as an exceptional corporate gift.

Thanks in advance...

**You can't possibly deny me...**

**Have a wonderful day filled with good health, happiness, and love…**

In December 2023, Energy Central recognized outstanding contributors within the Energy & Sustainability Network during the 'Top Voices' event. The recipients of this honor were highlighted in six articles, showcasing the acknowledgment from the community. The platform facilitates professionals in disseminating their work, engaging with peers, and collaborating with industry influencers. Congratulations are extended to the 2023 Top Voices: David Hunt, Germán Toro Ghio, Schalk Cloete, and Dan Yurman for their exemplary demonstration of expertise. - Matt Chester, Energy Central

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**You can't possibly deny me...**

**Have a wonderful day filled with good health, happiness, and love…**

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Natural Gas Terminal AES ANDRES, located in the Dominican Republic. Image provided by AES Dominicana.

Andrés Gluski, President and CEO of AES, articulated this perspective during the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2023, stating, "I am confident we will need natural gas for the next 20 years." He further emphasized, "We can start blending it with green hydrogen today."

Not Angela, not...

NYT By Lisa FriedmanCoral Davenport and Brad Plumer, Jan. 21, 2025

President Trump is moving to restructure the nation’s energy future to block any transition away from fossil fuels. And he is testing the boundaries of presidential power to do it.

The orders that Mr. Trump signed on Monday would make it easier and cheaper for companies to produce oil and gas and for the government to stop clean energy projects that have been approved.

While some actions lie within his purview, others may violate federal law or run counter to judicial decisions. Among other things, Mr. Trump raised the possibility of reversing the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases, which has been confirmed by the Supreme Court, and proposed to halt funding for electric vehicle charging stations that Congress has already authorized.

“Congress passed landmark infrastructure and climate investments, and now President Trump is attempting to illegally withhold that money from American businesses, communities, and workers,” said Representative Frank Pallone, Democrat of New Jersey.

The moves also underscore a fundamental tension. Mr. Trump declared that the United States is facing an energy emergency, yet wants to block thousands of megawatts of planned wind projects that could power homes and businesses. He talks about strengthening American manufacturing but plans to withdraw assistance from the electric vehicle industry, which has invested billions of dollars in new factories across the United States.

“The phrase ‘energy emergency’ is an excuse to put in place initiatives that are hostile to the energy transition that is already taking place, to stop the progress that has been made in producing solar and wind power, electric vehicles, batteries, and renewable power,” said Robert N. Stavins, director of the Harvard University Environmental Economics Program.

By any economic measure, the United States is not facing an energy emergency, experts said. America is the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas, and the price of oil, about $76 per barrel, is roughly the same as the average cost over the past 20 years, adjusted for inflation. The cost of gasoline, about $3.13 per gallon, has dropped about 3 percent over the past 12 months.

But, Dr. Stavins added, “If there really were an energy emergency, then the right thing to do would be to increase supplies of all forms of energy, and to try to use energy conservation initiatives” — like stricter efficiency standards for vehicles and household appliances like dishwashers and stoves — to decrease demand. Instead, Mr. Trump’s executive orders are aimed at loosening those requirements so appliances would use more energy and cars would burn more gasoline.

The oil and gas industry donated more than $75 million to Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and Mr. Trump, in turn, promised to shred environmental regulations to lower their costs and increase their margins. He pledged to give them virtually unfettered access to American lands and waters. At one fund-raising dinner in the spring, Mr. Trump told oil and gas executives they should donate $1 billion to his campaign and said they would recoup more than that in lowered taxes, lower costs and higher profits.

“There’s an increased sense of confidence that our costs of doing business aren’t going to rise,” said Steve Pruett, chief executive of Elevation Resources LLC, an oil and gas producer in West Texas.

Although some executives worry that increased drilling could lead to an oil glut that could lower prices and profits, most don’t want to be restricted in terms of where they can explore and drill. And many don’t want to see wind and solar power and electric vehicles flourish in a way that would lower demand for fossil fuels.

“This is a new day for American energy, and we applaud President Trump for moving swiftly to chart a new path where U.S. oil and natural gas are embraced, not restricted,” said Mike Sommers, the president of the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group.

While former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. made the fight against climate change a priority and worked to steer the United States away from fossil fuels, the burning of which is heating the planet, Mr. Trump is intent on a sharp U-turn.

His definition of energy is limited almost entirely to fossil fuels, although he makes exceptions for hydropower, geothermal and nuclear power. One executive order said that the phrase “energy resources” was defined as “crude oil, natural gas, lease condensates, natural gas liquids, refined petroleum products, uranium, coal, biofuels, geothermal heat, the kinetic movement of flowing water, and critical minerals.”

There was no mention of solar panels, wind turbines or battery storage, which are three of the fastest-growing sources of electric capacity in the United States.

Chris Wright, a fracking executive who is Mr. Trump’s choice to lead the Energy Department, summed up the position of many Republicans when he said in 2023, “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either.”

Pressed by Democrats at his Senate confirmation hearing last week, Mr. Wright clarified that he believed climate change was “a global challenge that we need to solve.” He told lawmakers that he supported all forms of energy, including renewable sources, but that fossil fuels would continue to dominate energy systems for some time.

Still, experts point out that, around the world, renewable energy and electric vehicles are increasingly playing an essential role in the global economy.

In the United States last year, solar panels and wind turbines produced more electricity than the nation’s coal-fired power plants for the first time ever. In China, sales of new electric vehicles have outstripped sales of new gasoline-powered cars. In California, roughly 25 percent of new cars sold are now electric.

“The transition is already underway,” said Steven A. Cohen, director of Columbia University’s master’s degree program in Sustainability Management. “We are seeing more than the beginnings, and lots and lots of movement in the direction of renewable energy around the world.”

The new Trump administration’s efforts to stop it “is symbolic politics,” Dr. Cohen said. It might slow it down for the duration of Mr. Trump’s four years in office he said, “but in the long run, it won’t stop it.”

Renewable energy companies, however, worried about short-term disruptions and sought to cast themselves as the answer to Mr. Trump’s call for lower energy costs.

“A freeze on investing in the technologies we need to power our grid and vehicles threatens our ability to lower costs, create energy abundance, and win the race for global energy dominance,” said Heather O’Neill, president of Advanced Energy United, a trade group whose members include wind, solar and battery firms.

The president has ordered that federal agencies stop spending money approved by Congress when it passed the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which together pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into clean energy and electric vehicles. The order appears aimed at stopping the government from distributing funds to manufacturers of electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels and other clean energy, even if grants or loans had already been approved and binding contracts were signed.

“At the end of the day, the federal government has entered into a legal agreement with these recipients,” said Zealan Hoover, who directed the implementation of Inflation Reduction Act programs at the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration. “An executive order does not give the agency magic power to ignore properly implemented laws and regulations.”

Another executive order raises the possibility of revoking or altering offshore wind leases after companies had already received them. Before terminating or amending existing wind leases, the Trump administration would review existing permits to see whether there were any environmental reasons to revoke them.

Mr. Trump’s order “expressly states that the administration may terminate or amend existing wind energy leases, and we think there may be sufficient authority to do so,” said Timothy Fox, a managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, a consulting firm.

But experts said that other directives were vulnerable to legal challenges.

For example, by declaring a national energy emergency, Mr. Trump is claiming the authority to bypass environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act in order to speed up approvals for drilling, mining, pipelines or other facilities for oil, gas or coal.

Patrick Parenteau, an emeritus professor of environmental law at the Vermont Law School, said the law defines an emergency as an imminent threat to life and property.

“These emergency provisions are for disasters like what is happening in the Palisades,” Mr. Parenteau said, referring to the fires raging through Los Angeles. “They’re not for ‘because I want to drill, baby, drill’,” he said.

Whether Mr. Trump’s actions survive could depend on the federal courts, where hundreds of Trump-appointed judges could hear cases.

“Litigation is guaranteed,” said Jody Freeman, the director of the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program and a former Obama White House official. But, she added, the Trump administration “may say ‘we’re prepared to roll the dice.’”

Mr. Trump has also directed federal agencies to eliminate the “social cost of carbon,” a little-known but powerful metric used by the government to defend the cost of environmental regulations. It refers to the economic harm caused by drought, floods, fires and other events made worse by climate change.

The Biden administration had calculated the cost at $190 per ton of carbon dioxide and used that number to defend the cost to industry of limiting carbon dioxide from tailpipes and smokestacks. The executive order signed by President Trump on Monday said the calculation was “marked by logical deficiencies, a poor basis in empirical science, politicization, and the absence of a foundation in legislation.”

Richard Revesz, who helped set the cost under the Biden administration, said the executive order was irrational. “Literally nothing within that paragraph makes any sense at all,” he said, adding that the calculation relied on the work of William Nordhaus, the economist who developed the concept of the social cost of carbon.

“How could you call the reliance on the work of a Nobel Prize winner a poor basis in empirical science?” Mr. Revesz said.

Abigail Dillen, the president of Earthjustice, an environmental group, called Mr. Trump’s executive orders “completely out of touch” for a president who wants the United States to dominate the future.

“Perhaps the biggest race for the future is who will command clean energy,” Ms. Dillen said. “Even if you want to see more drilling, if you’re in the majority of Americans, you also want to see clean energy move forward.”

Rebecca F. Elliott contributed reporting.

A Complex Checkerboard For The Power Industry…