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mericans proudly proclaim that everyone has the right to express their opinion. But what happens when a presidential candidate announces plans to erase environmental policies and revive fossil fuels? We’re about to find out, as Americans have voted for the person who promised just that: Donald Trump.

Five months ago, 78 percent of Americans surveyed by the University of Chicago recognized climate change as a real issue. Of these, 62 percent were Republicans. Eight out of ten people reported having personally experienced extreme weather, and 68 percent considered environmental issues critical in the elections.

Yet, all these concerns have been overshadowed, overtaken by issues like the immigration crisis, inflation, and a general decline in quality of life. Trump called climate change a ‘hoax,’ dismissed scientists as ‘alarmists,’ and accused meteorologists of being ‘doomsayers’ simply for continuing to report on hurricanes and cyclones.

 

 

 

 

The first steps set the tone

The first appointments signaled the direction the new American administration would take. Trump appointed climate change denier Lee Zeldin to lead the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), and Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota and a close ally of oil companies, was named head of the National Energy Council. Chris Wright, a fracking magnate, was appointed Secretary of Energy. Trump also announced plans to immediately cancel the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains the largest clean energy investment in American history, and to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, just as he did during his first term.

The oil giant ExxonMobil opposed the move. A spokesperson made it clear in a conversation with CNN: “A second exit from the Paris Agreement would have profound implications on the United States’ efforts to reduce its emissions and on international efforts to combat climate change.” The company called for “policies that consider security, sustainability, reliability, and environmental management, not drastic changes that could hinder the progress made so far.”

 

 

 

Oil companies, but also supportersof renewables

Texas, America’s oil capital, is also leading the new challenge in renewable energy. Renewables now provide 65 percent of the power consumed in Iowa, more than half in Kansas and South Dakota, and over a third in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Nebraska, Nevada, Maine, and North Dakota. An analysis by the Washington Post revealed that districts Trump won in 2020 received three times the clean energy investments compared to those that went to Joe Biden. With the Inflation Reduction Act, nineteen out of twenty Republican-majority districts received substantial funding to combat climate change.

 

 

 

 

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his funding is expected to create 110,000 new jobs and attract USD 126 billion in private investments across forty states. Another study, published in Energy Policy, suggests that the decarbonization of the U.S. economy could create nearly nine million jobs by 2050.

Solar and wind are already more cost-effective than fossil fuels, but these indicators haven’t swayed Trump, who continues to support traditional energy sources in line with the ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ slogan from his campaign. The risk, according to analysts, is that the United States may relinquish the ‘green gold’ to others—a mistake that has been made before: it was an American who invented the first silicon photovoltaic solar cell in 1885. Yet today, China controls 80 percent of the global solar supply chain. Once a global leader in wind energy, the U.S. now finds China dominating the turbine production market.

 

 

 

 

The power of the visionary billionaire

If there is one place within the Trump administration where the climate issue might find some traction, it’s with Elon Musk. The billionaire owner of the social media platform X, electric vehicle company Tesla, and aerospace company SpaceX has taken the environmental emergency so seriously that he has invested in the race to reach Mars. While Trump aims to slow the green energy race, Musk dreams of seeing his electric cars flood America’s roads. Given Musk’s significant influence at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s headquarters in Florida, environmentalists are hopeful that he can plant the ‘green doubt’ in the president’s mind—the kind of doubt on which the fate and health of the planet depend.