Significant changes were made to the WhiteHouse.gov web site in relation to climate change and energy less than an hour after President Trump took the oath of office on Saturday morning our time.
A page on climate change disappeared from the Executive Branch’s main site and was shifted to an archive site.
A new page to appear was “An America First Energy Plan”.
It states President Trump is committed to “eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies” such as the Climate Action Plan; which in 2013 set a goal doubling renewable electricity generation. That plan would have seen all Federal buildings sourcing 20% of their electricity supply from renewable energy sources from 2020.
“For too long, we’ve been held back by burdensome regulations on our energy industry,” says the summary.
The America First Energy Plan page states the Trump Administration will embrace the shale oil and gas revolution and revive America’s coal industry.
There isn’t a single mention of wind energy, solar power or renewable energy in general in the policy summary.
Under the Obama Administration, the USA’s solar capacity grew from 1.2GW of solar energy capacity in 2008 to 31GW. Wind power capacity increased from 25GW capacity to 75GW.
The USA reached 1 million solar rooftops in the first half of 2016. It took decades to reach the first million, but the next million should only take a few years.
A recent report from the Department of Energy states 373,807 Americans spend time working in solar manufacturing, installation, distribution, or in the provision of professional services to the sector. The USA’s wind technology sector boasts a total of 101,738 workers.
While the wording of the America First Energy Plan wasn’t exactly encouraging in terms of renewables, the future for the industry doesn’t appear to be one of gloom and doom.
“Environmental rules and government subsidies are no longer the key drivers for clean power. Economics are,” states an article published on Bloomberg in November.
Just prior to leaving office, an article by Barack Obama published in the journal Science gave four reasons why he believes the trend toward clean energy is irreversible.
