With less than a week in office, the U.S president was already trumping on energy matters!
Following updates on the WhiteHouse.gov website, significant amendments relating to climate change and energy were made in less than an hour after the new U.S president took his oath of office on Saturday morning Australian time.
A page that detailed climate change was removed from the Executive Branch’s main web site and moved to the archive site. The new page appeared as “An America First Energy Plan“.
The page remarked that President Trump is dedicated to “eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies” including the Climate Acton Plan, which set a 2013 goal of doubling renewable power generation. Had it been adopted, the plan would have compelled all Federal buildings to source 20 per cent of their energy supply needs from renewables starting 2020.
“For too long, we’ve been held back by burdensome regulations on our energy industry,” the summary says.
The page with the America First Energy Plan says the Trump Administration will embrace the gas and shale oil revolution and revive the coal industry in America.
Surprisingly, the policy summary makes no mention of solar power, wind energy or renewable energy in general.
During the Obama Administration, the United States’ solar capacity rose from 1.2GW capacity of solar energy in 2008 to a staggering 31GW. Wind power grew from 25GW capacity to a whole 75GW.
The United States hit one million solar rooftops by mid of 2016. It took the country decades to get the first million, but the advancement in clean energy technologies, it’s likely that the next million will only take a couple of years.
According to the latest report from the Department of Energy, 373,807 Americans worked in solar manufacturing, distribution and installation as well as in the provision of professional services within the sector. To date, the wind technology sector in the USA has employed a total of 101,738 workers.
Despite the American First Energy Plan summary sounding a bit discouraging with regards to renewables, the industry’s future doesn’t seem gloom and doom after all.
“Environmental rules and government subsidies are no longer the key drivers for clean power. Economics are,” says a November article published on Bloomberg.
Prior to leaving office, the journal science published an article by Barack Obama highlighting four reasons why the former U.S president believes the current trend toward renewable energy is irreversible.
IMAGE via Gage Skidmore
