President-elect Donald Trump is envisioning a future without new wind energy projects under his administration, arguing that the power sources are economically unrealistic and harm marine life.
President Trump has long criticized the use of wind power as a major form of energy production, but his recent comments raise the possibility that the incoming administration will place significant limits on the production of new wind power projects in the future. It suggests something.
“Energy is the most expensive thing. It's many times more expensive than clean natural gas,” President Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. “So we are going to have a policy of not building wind turbines.”
The federal government currently offers several different ways to obtain subsidies for wind turbine production, but President Trump pointed to that as one of the main issues regarding the energy source.
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President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Tuesday, January 7, 2025. (Evan Vucci)
“The only people who want that are the people who are getting rich off windmills with huge subsidies from the U.S. government,” he added. “We don't need subsidized energy.”
The president-elect also asserted that potential interference with marine mammals is an issue, particularly in Massachusetts.
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“You'll see what's going on in the Massachusetts area, where we've probably had two whales stranded in 17 years,” Trump said at a news conference. “This season we had 14. It's clear that the windmills are driving the whales crazy.”
President Trump has found agreement with some environmental groups on this issue.
“That's the only thing that's changed, and it's changed dramatically,” said Constance Gee of Green Oceans, an organization that works to protect marine life, according to WCVB 5. There is also ocean floor profiling using sonar. ”
However, the National Marine Fisheries Service says there is currently no evidence linking wind turbines to the whale deaths.
Wind turbines at the Block Island Wind Farm tower above the water off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island, on October 14, 2016. The first offshore wind project in the United States will create more than 300 construction jobs and meet the island's electricity needs. (Don Emmert)
President Trump's recent comments were criticized by senior Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, who said the president-elect is “totally out of touch.”
“Mr. Trump's opposition to wind energy is because he doesn't understand our nation's energy needs and because he doesn't want a turbine near his private country club,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a statement. It's because I hate it.”
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), wind energy is currently the largest source of renewable energy in the United States. But such energy production has faced increasing opposition in recent years from Republican lawmakers who have expressed concerns about its potential negative impacts.
On August 20, 2010, a wind turbine spins to generate electricity. (2010 Getty Images)
“Like canaries in a coal mine, a recent spate of tragic whale deaths has shed new light on the rapid tracking of thousands of wind turbines off our coast,” Rep. Chris Smith (RN.J.) said in March. “There is increasing scrutiny on this,” he said. 2023.
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Over the past four years, President Joe Biden has made major investments in the offshore wind industry as part of his green energy push, approving 11 of the nation's first commercial-scale offshore wind projects.
