President Donald Trump is rolling back the Biden administration’s policies promoting clean energy, but Republicans haven’t abandoned adopting clean energy targets.
Advocates for green and renewable energy have criticized the Trump administration, saying they have hindered efforts to reach clean energy targets, such as by pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord. Shortly after taking office, Trump issued a slew of executive orders that removed federal incentives for electric vehicles, halted offshore wind leasing and permitting, and expanded federal authority for oil drilling.
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“Trump is going to make the job of meeting our climate goals a lot harder,” Bill Hare, a physicist who leads Climate Analytics, a non-profit consultancy in Berlin, told Nature.
The Paris Climate Agreement is a legally binding international treaty adopted by 196 nations in December 2015, with its main goal being to pursue initiatives “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” World leaders stress these efforts must hold off a 1.5°C temperature increase until the end of a century, but greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline by 43% by 2030, according to the United Nations.
Days after Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement, 120 House Democrats introduced a resolution calling on Trump to reverse his decision.
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“A climate crisis is unfolding before our eyes that already costs the U.S. tens of billions of dollars per year,” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) said in a statement. “President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement sends a signal to our allies that the US is turning its back on a healthy and safe future for our world. This decision puts us at a competitive disadvantage to adversaries like China and lowers global ambition to address climate change with the seriousness and urgency it demands.”
Republican lawmakers have been wary of the Paris Climate Agreement. Back in 2021, when President Joe Biden rejoined the treaty, lawmakers were making efforts to block it.
“President Biden violated the Constitution when he chose to rejoin the poorly negotiated and deeply flawed Paris Climate Agreement—a deal that’s horrible for America and good for China,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) said in a statement in 2021.
While Republicans may be cautious of Democratic-led green energy targets, many GOP lawmakers have still recognized the importance of investing in clean energy.
The Conservative Climate Caucus consists of dozens of Republican House members who are focused on reducing emissions without “reducing energy choices.” The caucus believes that reducing energy emissions can still be achieved while still relying on fossil fuels.
“Practical and exportable answers can be found in innovation embraced by the free market,” the caucus said in a statement. “Americans and the rest of the world want access to cheaper, reliable, and cleaner energy.”
One energy resource that receives bipartisan support is nuclear energy, which is considered to be “the most resilient, environmentally sustainable, and reliable energy sources on the grid today,” according to the Department of Energy.
Nuclear energy is created by splitting atoms apart with nuclear reactors, which use uranium. While producing nuclear energy does not produce air pollution or carbon dioxide, it does create radioactive waste that can cause health issues if not properly contained and disposed.
There are 54 nuclear power plants across 28 states, and one of those nuclear power plants is Sequoyah Nuclear Plant located in Hamilton County, Tennessee. It generates enough energy to power 1.3 million homes in the Tennessee Valley everyday.
The plant is located within Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN)’s district, who is a member of the Conservative Climate Caucus and serves as chairman of the Appropriations Committee’s Energy and Water Development subcommittee. Fleischmann is a huge advocate for investing in nuclear energy, having authored the Energy and Water Development appropriations bill introduced last year, which would seek to make nuclear energy investments a top priority.
“Americans face ever-increasing energy costs on top of decades-high inflation,” Flesichmann wrote in an op/ed in the Daily Caller in March 2024. “The present times call for strong, conservative action to get America and the world back on track. The Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill responsibly uses every precious and limited taxpayer dollar to ensure our country has a strong and effective nuclear stockpile and removes the heavy yoke of high-cost energy and dependency on foreign energy sources.”
In January, the Department of Energy announced it would be allocating $13 million in grants for an Advanced Nuclear Energy Licensing Cost-Shared Grant Program. The program would offset the costs of licensing fees to bring more advanced reactors to the market.
“As demand for clean, reliable energy continues to grow, we need to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear technologies,” Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Dr. Michael Goff said in a press release. “This program will increase regulatory certainty by joining together public and private funds to expedite the deployment and commercialization of both light-water and non-light water advanced reactor designs.”
In addition to being longtime supporters of nuclear energy, members of the Republican party have invested in carbon dioxide removal projects.
Under the Biden administration, more than 160 projects geared toward removing carbon dioxide pollution and burying it were funded thanks to investments in technology from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. By 2050, 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide will need to be removed from the atmosphere every year, with the United States being responsible for removal of 1 to 2 billion, according to the National Academies.
Investments in CDR under the second Trump administration remains up in the air due to Trump’s plan to repeal the IRA and cut unspent funding, but carbon dioxide removal has received bipartisan support. Growth in the CDR market is expected to reach between $10 to $40 billion by 2030. A vast majority of Republican-led states have the highest potential use for carbon dioxide removal technologies.
Last November, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) introduced a bipartisan bill known as the Carbon Dioxide Removal Investment Act, which would create a tax credit worth $250 per metric ton of CO2. The bill would spur investments in carbon dioxide removal technologies.
“Alaska possesses unique characteristics that make it a perfect candidate to be a national leader in carbon dioxide removal,” Murkowski said in a statement. “This tax credit will help jumpstart critical projects in this burgeoning industry, helping Alaska realize enormous untapped economic potential.”
And in September, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) introduced legislation to grant more subsidies for carbon capture projects.
“For years, Wyoming has proudly led the way on carbon capture projects,” Barrasso said in a press release. “We’ve successfully used this technology to take carbon out of the air and find productive uses for it. One of those uses includes enhanced oil and natural gas recovery.”
There are at least seven carbon dioxide capture projects planned in Wyoming.
When it comes to other forms of renewable energy, red states such as Texas and Iowa are home to the highest number of wind turbines, with wind power representing about 11% of total U.S. power generation.
In 2023, wind energy represented 28.6% of Texas energy generation as the state had billions of dollars in investments. The state has the highest wind energy production in the nation.
As for Iowa, wind energy is the number one source of power in the state. It accounts for 57% of the state’s energy.
“Wind is still dominant, and it’s still dominant in red states,” Sarah Mills, director of the University of Michigan’s Center for EmPowering Communities told the Hill.
Trump has shown his distaste for investments in clean energy sources such as wind power, but Republican-led states are dominant when it comes to this renewable energy.
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Democrats often align with Republicans when it comes to their investments in renewable energy, but problems arise as the Republican Party does not push for greenhouse gas emission quotas and mandates as the Democratic Party does.
“Energy demand is going up — we have to meet increased energy demand for both our states and our country to be competitive globally. To do that, you have to have abundant, affordable, reliable energy,” Mills said.