Renewables on CrossGov.com

Trump's Hostility to Solar Fights the Cheapest, Fastest Power America Can Build as Data Centres Push Demand Up

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’ll concede the obvious first. The US solar industry runs on Chinese supply chains, it grew up on tax credits, and some of the farmland arguments against giant solar fields are real ones that rural counties make for themselves. A President who wanted panels made in America and fewer subsidies would be on defensible ground. Much of what his trade officials have done on polysilicon and dumped panels sits on that ground.

Trump's War on Wind Power: $4 Billion of Taxpayer Money Spent to Cancel Electricity America Needs

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t think wind power is a moral cause. Turbines are big, they change a coastline, and some projects were signed at prices that looked generous even when they were signed. A President who wanted tougher contracts, a closer look at radar interference or a fairer deal for fishermen would have had a reasonable case to make.

That isn’t what this President has done. He has gone after wind with a hostility that no cost test, reliability test or national security test can explain.

Interior Pays $3.9 Billion to Retire Offshore Wind Leases While the Five Projects It Tried to Stop Keep Building

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Interior Department has agreed to pay about $3.9 billion to energy companies to give up 12 offshore wind leases, while losing every court fight over the five projects already under construction. Washington’s offshore wind policy now runs on two tracks: cash to stop future farms, and lawsuits it can’t win against the ones in the water.

On 18 September Ørsted installed the 65th and last turbine at Revolution Wind, the 704-megawatt farm off Rhode Island that Interior ordered to stop work twice. It has fed partial power to Rhode Island and Connecticut since March.

EPA Repeals Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Standards and NHTSA Cuts Fuel Economy to 34.9 MPG, With No Fines Left for Missing Them

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On 30 September NHTSA published a final rule cutting US fuel economy standards to an industry average of about 34.9 miles per gallon by model year 2031. It completes a federal retreat from vehicle climate rules that began with EPA’s repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding in February.

Under the 2024 standards NHTSA is replacing, the 2031 average would have been about 49.3 mpg. The new rule, which NHTSA calls SAFE Vehicles Rule III, takes effect on 30 November and resets standards back to model year 2022. Passenger cars would average about 40.2 mpg in 2031 and light trucks about 26.4 mpg.

Wind and Solar Tax Credits Pass Their July 4 Deadline With 200 GW Safe-Harboured After a Court Restored the 5% Test

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The 2025 reconciliation law, Public Law 119-21, gave wind and solar projects until 4 July 2026 to begin construction and keep the federal clean electricity tax credits. That deadline has passed. What’s left is a race to finish what got in under the wire.

The law changed the two credits that replaced the old production and investment credits from 2025: section 45Y, paid per kilowatt-hour, and section 48E, paid as a share of project cost. Wind and solar facilities keep them only if they began construction before 5 July 2026 or start producing power before 1 January 2028. Projects that missed the first date now face the second, with about fifteen months to go. Geothermal, nuclear, hydropower and battery storage keep full credits for construction that starts before the end of 2033, then phase down to zero after 2035.

DOE Concedes Its $7.56 Billion Clean Energy Grant Cuts Turned on State Politics, and Courts Start Restoring Awards

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Department of Energy has told a federal court that its October 2025 cancellation of clean energy grants was decided on the political identity of each recipient’s state. The admission, in a stipulation filed on 15 July 2026, puts about $7.56 billion of terminated awards on weak legal ground.

On 1 October 2025, the first day of the shutdown, OMB Director Russell Vought announced the cancellation of nearly $8 billion in funding across 16 states. DOE said the next day it had ended 321 awards for 223 projects worth about $7.56 billion. Every affected state had voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. The list included two of the seven regional hydrogen hubs, ARCHES in California, worth $1.2 billion, and the Pacific Northwest hub, worth about $1 billion.