What clean energy bosses say about Trump's attacks on renewables

E&E News

3 days ago

Renewable energy developers downplayed President Donald Trump's moves to eliminate clean energy subsidies during a series of earnings calls on Wednesday, expressing confidence they could advance projects already in development despite political headwinds in Washington.
But the calls, the first since Congress passed the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act earlier this month, also underlined the growing toll that Trump's policies are having on the clean tech sector.
Equinor, the Norwegian oil and gas giant, announced a $955 million write-down due to its bleak outlook for future offshore wind projects. GE Vernova said sales of its wind turbines were down while orders for gas turbines were rising. And executives at NextEra Energy, the country's largest renewable developer, walked a tightrope by saying wind, solar and batteries represented the fastest and cheapest way to meet rising electricity demand, even as they praised Trump's policies.
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'We are firmly aligned with the administration's goal to unleash American energy dominance, and to do so we need all of the electrons we can get on the grid,' NextEra CEO John Ketchum told investors. 'New gas and nuclear are on the way and will be critical to meeting demand over the long term. Renewables and storage can bridge the gap and will play an important role in an all-of-the-above future.'
The comment underscored just how much has changed in Washington since Trump took office six months ago. 'All of the above' and 'bridge fuel' were once terms that signaled a continued role for fossil fuels in a rapidly greening energy sector. Now, the clean energy industry has flipped the meaning to promote wind and solar at a time when Trump is demanding more fossil fuel production.
The rhetorical shift comes as Trump's megalaw dramatically curtailed clean energy tax credits established by the Inflation Reduction Act, the pillar of former President Joe Biden's climate legacy. The administration has also called for additional rounds of review for renewable projects planned on federal land and proposed rolling back a series of pollution regulations for power plants.
Ketchum called the megalaw 'tough, but constructive.' He said his company is well-positioned to survive the policy turbulence, thanks to its access to transmission lines, a robust supply chain and strong balance sheet. He signaled that NextEra could acquire projects that have been planned by smaller developers who might not weather Trump's policy shifts.
'I see some natural breaking points that could create significant opportunities for us,' Ketchum said.
He also sought to interpret 'safe harbor' provisions within the megalaw that determine when a project began construction and whether it can qualify for tax credits. Trump recently signed an executive order directing the Treasury Department to tighten that definition, potentially making it harder for companies to qualify for the credits.
'The 'begin construction' term has been around for well over a decade,' Ketchum told investors. 'It has a settled meaning within the industry. That meaning is informed by long-standing Treasury Department guidance.'
Headwinds for Vineyard Wind
Across the Atlantic, executives at the Spanish power giant Iberdrola S.A. predicted the law would have little impact on the company's 1,800 megawatts of onshore wind and solar projects under construction in the U.S. They ventured to say that an offshore wind project that has not yet started construction, New England Wind 1, could receive federal tax credits if it moves forward within 12 months. Iberdrola's negotiations with Massachusetts over a power contract for the development have been repeatedly delayed amid the policy uncertainty emanating from Washington.
Much of the company's focus has been on finishing Vineyard Wind 1, an 800MW project off Massachusetts that its building with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. The project suffered a serious setback last year when a turbine blade detached and crashed into the ocean, delaying construction that was supposed to be completed last year.
Construction appears to be picking up. Iberdrola officials said Wednesday that 17 turbines are now sending power to the New England electric grid, up from four turbines at its last earnings call in April, and that 23 turbines are now fully installed.
'Vineyard Wind continues to progress through its construction and commissioning program, with safety as the highest priority,' Craig Gilvarg, a spokesperson for the project, said in a statement.
Equinor company executives said construction of Empire Wind 1 was progressing after Trump lifted a stop-work order in May that had halted construction on the 810MW project for a month. But even as work moves forward, Equinor signaled it was scaling back its offshore wind ambitions in the U.S.
The $955 million write-down was largely based on projections that there will be fewer offshore wind projects completed after Empire Wind 1. Equinor is building a port in Brooklyn that it had hoped would serve other projects in the New York area. But with the Trump administration tightening the rules around offshore wind, and plans for a second phase of Empire Wind on hold, the company said the port will be used less than Equinor had hoped, undermining its value.
Equinor's chief financial officer, Torgrim Reitan, said the company expects lower profits from Empire Wind, but added that 'the best way to protect value in the current situation was clearly to move forward with the project.'
Question marks around projects like New England Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2 help explain why companies like GE Vernova are booking fewer orders for new wind turbines. GE Vernova's wind segment, which includes onshore and offshore, reported orders of $2.7 billion through the first six months of 2025, compared with $3.3 billion over the same period last year.
That makes GE Vernova's wind division a laggard among the company's otherwise bustling business. Its power division, which includes gas, saw revenues increase from $10 billion in the first half of 2024 to $13 billion this year. In the second quarter of 2025, the power division reported selling 21 gas turbines and booking orders for 47 more.
Passage of Trump's megalaw produced an 'acceleration of activity' for wind, solar and grid equipment, as companies race to qualify for federal tax credits, said GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik. But he said the law's passage produced a clear shift in the U.S. from renewables to gas over the longer term, as customers who were planning to add wind and solar in the last years of the decade are increasingly moving to gas.
'I would say our pipeline of activity for gas demand is only growing,' Strazik said.
This story also appears in Energywire.