$27.6bn stalled: 26 clean energy projects paused, cancelled or closed in Trump’s first 6 months.
Slump in new investment: Only $3bn in new projects announced, compared with $15.9bn in early 2024.
Communities left behind: Disadvantaged areas see 70% of investment affected, vs 30% elsewhere.
Policy U-turns: High tariffs, weaker fuel standards and IRA/BIL rollbacks threaten clean energy momentum.
Donald Trump’s election as President of the world’s largest economy has created fresh bottlenecks for the global energy transition, as he imposed tariffs on the United States imports of clean energy technologies from across the world. In addition, plans to roll back the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) threaten to further stall the country’s shift to clean power.
Both pieces of legislation, passed under former President Joe Biden, aimed to promote major significant capital investments in US’s domestic clean energy manufacturing.
The extent to which the US decarbonises matters for the global transition. The country has been a historic polluter, responsible for almost 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions since the pre-industrial era. Six months into Trump’s presidency, the data on clean energy investment paints a bleak picture.
A report from Wellesley College’s environmental studies department, based on its ‘The Big Green Machine’ database tracking US clean energy projects, found that solar, wind, battery and electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing projects are being paused, cancelled or closed at a rate six times higher than during the same period in 2024 — and 30 times higher than in 2023.
In the past six months, 26 projects, adding up to $27.6 billion in capital investment and 18,849 jobs, have been halted or scrapped. Over the same period, only 29 new projects were announced, worth $3 billion and creating 8,334 jobs.
By comparison, the first half of 2024 saw 54 new projects announced, adding up to $15.9 billion in capital investment and creating more than 25,000 jobs. Only eight projects were paused, slowed or cancelled at that time, totalling $4.1 billion and 3,820 jobs.
While the figures show significant disruption, the report noted that some previously announced projects have initiated pilot production or even moved beyond. In the past six months, 39 projects worth $21.1 billion have advanced, creating over 25,000 jobs; however, these are generally smaller in scale and less likely to receive federal support, compared to the projects that are paused, cancelled or closed.
Although it is not surprising that projects dependent on federal loans and grants were more likely to experience delays, it is interesting to note that those located in poorer regions or disadvantaged communities had a higher likelihood of being slowed (ie, paused, cancelled, or closed). This implies that the communities most in need of livelihoods and opportunities could end up losing out even further.
More specifically, based on project count, disadvantaged communities have seen 47 per cent of projects slowed, compared with 30 per cent in non-disadvantaged communities. In terms of capital investment, the former experienced 70 per cent of projects being slowed, while the latter saw 30 per cent affected.
The policy regulations, whether concerning trade with various countries or domestic measures such as diluting the IRA and BIL, have serious implications for the country’s clean energy manufacturing. For instance, Trump recently announced a tariff of 93.5 per cent on anode-grade graphite imported from China, a key raw material for EV batteries. While this could favour domestic graphite production, it represents a setback for domestic manufacturers reliant on Chinese graphite imports.
The Trump administration is also planning to reverse vehicle fuel efficiency standards, which could reduce demand for EVs. Furthermore, Congress recently revoked California’s emission waiver for registered vehicles — a tool critical to achieving the state’s target of 100 per cent zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035, a goal also adopted by 17 other states.
According to the report, under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Trump administration will roll back tax incentives, loan support, grants and other policies established under the IRA and BIL. The impact of these rollbacks will be felt by manufacturers in the US and globally.
The lack of federal support for new EVs and the termination of manufacturing credits for clean energy technologies, such as wind turbine components, will further impede a transition that is urgently needed worldwide.