Thousands of mirrors concentrate the sun’s rays onto the towers of the Ivanpah solar plant in California to generate electricity. May 2026. (Etienne Laurent, AFP)
In 2019, the Green New Deal was the great promise of the American left. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey proposed a public investment plan to tackle the climate crisis, transform the energy system, and create jobs. Seven years later, on the eve of the midterm elections, many Democrats avoid even speaking about the climate crisis.
Oliver Milman analyzed for The Guardian the websites of Senate candidates in eight key swing states that could decide the outcome of the vote. Only two mention climate change: Abdul El-Sayed, a Senate candidate in Michigan who distance himself from the Green New Deal while continuing to support renewables; and James Talarico in Texas, who once compared oil and gas to obsolete videocassettes destined to disappear, but today defends the oil industry, arguing that it helps fund public schools. Everyone else focuses predominantly on inflation, healthcare, and the war against Iran.
The paradox is that just as politicians speak less about the climate—believing it is no longer politically advantageous—renewable energy continues to gain ground. Solar power is winning over supporters even within Donald Trump’s sphere. What is convincing them, above all, is the price of electricity and the need to produce much more of it, not least to power artificial intelligence.
In 2025, solar and wind provided 17 percent of the electricity generated by utility-scale power plants in the U.S., according to the Energy Information Administration. Twenty years ago, that figure was below 1 percent. This growth owes much to Joe Biden’s policies. While the Green New Deal was never passed into law, several of its proposals were incorporated into legislation in 2021 and 2022—most notably the Inflation Reduction Act, which funded clean technologies through tax incentives and industrial subsidies. Many facilities opening today stem from investments initiated during that period.
However, more solar and wind energy does not automatically translate into less oil, gas, and coal. The growth of renewables has not stopped U.S. emissions from rising again. In 2025, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions grew by 2 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration. The largest increase came precisely from the power sector, where demand spiked and coal usage surged. Globally, fossil fuel emissions reached a new record high, while average global temperatures hovered around 1.43 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
In the United States, the construction of new renewable projects continues to clash with Trump’s policies, which have cut incentives, delayed certain initiatives, and favored oil, gas, and coal. But while the administration can slow down the deployment of new technologies, it cannot erase their progress. A Financial Times editorial explains why: in many regions, solar and wind are among the cheapest sources for generating new electricity. A solar or wind plant can be built in under two years, whereas a gas-fired power station often requires at least three. Furthermore, certain tax credits survived the policy cuts, and companies are racing to leverage them before they expire.
Two of Trump’s major policy choices have also indirectly boosted the economic appeal of renewables. The war against Iran drove up gasoline prices, leading more households to look into rooftop solar installations and consider purchasing electric vehicles to lower fuel costs. Meanwhile, the AI boom—promoted and incentivized by the White House—is causing electricity demand to surge. Data centers require massive amounts of power and new capacity that can be deployed rapidly, such as solar power plants. However, this demand could also bolster natural gas: several tech companies are considering building dedicated gas plants for their data centers, risking further emissions growth.
MAGA Friends
Keeping an eye on household concerns over steadily rising utility bills, the solar industry is actively trying to win over new Republican allies. Manufacturers argue that solar panels can rapidly expand the power supply and keep prices under control. To this economic argument, they add a national security perspective: the United States must build out its own domestic solar manufacturing base to reduce reliance on China. In this narrative, the fight against climate change has all but vanished.
Noah Shachtman reports in Wired that T1 Energy, an American solar component manufacturer, has hired lobbyists with close ties to Trump, including a former hunting partner of Donald Trump Jr. The company is pressing the White House to shield domestic solar panel makers from foreign competition. Katie Miller, a former spokesperson for DOGE and wife of presidential adviser Stephen Miller, has been promoting solar power on social media as a matter of national security.
Some signs in this direction are even emerging from the Trump administration itself. Evan Halper reported in The Washington Post that in January, the president shared a video on Truth Social proposing the installation of rooftop solar and batteries on millions of homes to free up grid capacity for factories and data centers. In February, Energy Secretary Chris Wright—who previously referred to solar energy as a “parasite” on the electric grid—acknowledged that it can provide affordable and reliable power. Additionally, some stalled projects have been permitted to resume regulatory review, even as the White House continues to block many others.
A pro-solar organization commissioned a poll conducted by the firm of Kellyanne Conway, a former counselor to Trump. Seventy-five percent of Trump voters surveyed across five states said they favored adding more solar energy to the grid. While the survey was funded by industry advocates and should be interpreted with caution, it nonetheless indicates that solar energy appeals even to those who reject Democratic climate policies.
Not all business leaders in the sector are seeking common ground with Republicans. Chris Larsen, a cryptocurrency billionaire, is backing a political action committee planning to spend roughly $20 million opposing candidates hostile to renewables. However, some of its campaign ads do not address energy policy at all: rather than challenging candidates on their political stances, they target embarrassing personal incidents. One ad takes aim at Representative Lauren Boebert, a Trump ally from Colorado, replaying footage from 2023 when she was escorted out of a Denver theater during a performance. Russell Gold, an executive at T1 Energy, worries that such aggressive attacks risk alienating the very Republicans solar companies are trying to persuade.
Yet support from parts of the right wing has clear limits. Embracing solar panels does not mean a willingness to curb oil and gas consumption. According to a report by Atlas Public Policy, proposed fossil-fuel power plant projects are on the rise. If all announced projects were built, they would represent approximately 70 percent of new electricity capacity installed in 2030. The survey of Trump voters also exposed a key contradiction: 74 percent of respondents favored eliminating public subsidies for renewables. In short, solar energy is welcomed—provided Washington does not fund it, and provided there is little talk of the climate crisis.
This article is adapted from the newsletter Americana.
Translation edited by AI Assistant Gemini.
