President Donald Trump has vowed to scale back on clean energy projects. A recent executive order called for suspending new renewable projects on public lands, which could have a significant impact in the Mountain West.
A recent report from Climate Power, a political nonprofit focused on fighting climate change, said $420 billion in investments were made across the country and more than 400,000 new jobs were created in solar, wind and clean energy infrastructure since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law two years ago.
But the President is making efforts to return to more traditional forms of energy. Trump said clean energy has hurt development of affordable electricity and cost jobs. He also said traditional energy sources will help the economy and military security.
Jack Pratt, the senior political director of the nonprofit organization Environmental Defense Fund, countered that sentiment.
“You’re saving money with these (projects),” he said. “You don’t have to ship in oil from overseas. You don’t have to worry about bringing the raw materials in. Once you build these facilities they’re effective and cheap.”
Large scale solar farms in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado and plans to improve efficiency in delivering Colorado River water could be affected. Idaho’s Lava Ridge Wind Project was put on hold.
Pratt said rolling back these projects could hurt large-scale projects and consumer tax incentives. He said an independent analysis by MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy found that repealing consumer tax incentives meant “we would actually end up importing more oil because there would be more of a demand for a supply of oil for transportation.”
He also said clean energy projects are creating jobs and having a significant impact in “disadvantaged” communities. According to Climate Power $126 billion in clean energy investments is spurring 155,000 jobs in disadvantaged communities across the country.
The Climate Power compiled a map showing clean energy jobs by state: The top ten states for new clean energy jobs are Georgia, New York, Texas, Michigan, South Carolina, Nevada, Kansas, New Mexico, Arizona, and North Carolina.
Americans have also warmed up to the idea of clean energy in the last couple of years. According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, two-thirds of U.S. adults say the country should prioritize developing renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, over expanding the production of oil, coal and natural gas.
The same survey saidAmericans are reluctant to phase out fossil fuels altogether, but younger adults are more open to it. Sixty-eight percent say the country should use a mix of energy sources, including fossil fuels and renewables.
Many western states also have a big chunk of investments in clean energy, according to Climate Power. Nevada ranks in the top 10 in terms of jobs created from clean energy with 21,786 new jobs created by 39 different projects and a $15.5 billion investment. New Mexico (21,077 jobs) and Arizona (18,703 jobs) also rank in the top 10 for clean energy jobs created.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio (KNPR) in Las Vegas, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
