Blackouts and power outages could be 100 times more common in the U.S. by 2030, in part because of rising demand and an aging power generation infrastructure, according to a Department of Energy report released this week.
Yet U.S. policy just took a big turn away from the fastest-growing energy production technologies: renewables like wind, solar and battery storage.
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President Donald Trump's big bill phases out energy tax credits for developers and homeowners, significantly speeding up timelines for clean energy products and threatening their viability.
We asked Alexa St. John, a climate reporter with the Associated Press, about how Trump's new policies could reshape U.S. energy supply.
Watch the conversation in the player above.
How does the new law apply to current and future clean energy projects?
Alexa St. John: Well, this law is actually really existential for major clean energy developments, especially wind and solar. Those are really the big ones here. For large scale wind and solar projects, the law really speeds up the timeline that projects need to meet in order to qualify for the credits. So it does allow a full tax credit for wind, solar developments that start construction within a year of this law being signed. But projects that begin more than a year after it being signed into law have to be operational, so up and running by the end of 2027, or they won't get a credit.
Will current projects be able to meet new standards and timelines?
Alexa St. John: It is absolutely a short window and a lot of folks in the industry, clean energy advocates [and] other organizations, are saying it's nearly impossible and essentially sort of negates these credits at all. I mean, it's already a long drawn-out timeline to get these things, you know, up and running, ready to go. And so expediting that even more than anticipated is hugely problematic for the industry right now. They're scrambling to try to find a way to speed up if possible, but a lot of these might not see the light of day, just given how quick this comes up.
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What's happening to home incentive programs?
Alexa St. John: There are so many things we can do as consumers at home that are now impacted by this law. And Biden's Inflation Reduction Act included a couple of different credits for those home improvements, like you said. So, solar batteries, things that save homeowners money over time and cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions. The bill ends two big credits in particular. One is for upgrades like windows, insulation, heating and cooling, things of that nature. And then there's also credits for solar installations, of course, geothermal heat pumps, battery storage, other improvements. These things end at the end of this year. So for homeowners thinking about making these improvements, doing these projects at their residences, that's also coming up very quickly.
What will this mean for consumers?
Alexa St. John: Right now, actually, a lot of industry folks are saying that Americans can expect to see their utility bills go up. We really do need sources of renewable energy on the grid to supplement our traditional energy sources and energy production. It's really a matter of reliability, diversifying what energy sources we have available to us. So I've seen estimates that, average annual electricity costs could go up by more than $100 per household by next year, maybe even $200 in certain states.
What are the environmental concerns about these changes?
Alexa St. John: There could be a huge environmental impact, right? I mean, and that's really what the clean energy industry, a lot of advocates and organizations have been talking about throughout the budget reconciliation process. It's not just about getting these sources online, but they are significantly cleaner sources of energy. We don't see the greenhouse gas emissions from solar and wind that we do from burning coal. And so if this law now incentivizes those traditional energy sources and really detracts from, cleaner solar and wind development, that just means more planet warming, greenhouse gas emissions going into the atmosphere that warms our planet. It does contribute to climate change and it does contribute to these extreme weather situations that we're seeing more and more.