Last week’s column covered President Donald Trump’s insane blockage of clean and cheap sustainable energy from wind power. Equally appalling is his attack on solar power, energy efficiency and electric vehicles. His policies spur higher energy prices and diminish electrical supplies while promoting greater usage of polluting and costlier coal, oil and natural gas.

At an April 2024 dinner with 20 major fossil fuel executives at his Mar-a-Lago club, Trump asked them to raise $1 billion for his presidential campaign. If they did and if he won, he pledged the “deal” would save vastly more in avoided taxes and loosened environmental regulations. Since receiving the campaign funds, Trump is vigorously fulfilling his “deal.”

As we celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, Trump has done all in his power to foolishly block our independence from costly and environmentally dangerous fossil fuels. He has accelerated oil, gas and coal projects with extreme efforts to force more coal use, even from 14 shuttered and inefficient coal plants set to close. This will cost taxpayers more than $800 million.

Trump also is subsidizing the opening of two new coal plants and a new coal export terminal for the world’s dirtiest fuel while terminating regulation of global warming gases, weakening restrictions on dangerous toxins from coal such as mercury and relaxing cleanup requirements for toxic coal fly ash.

The administration relaxed bonds for clean-up costs and expedited permits for drilling for coal, oil and gas on millions of acres of federal land, drastically reducing the fees for their extraction. Firms would be allowed to release more methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Trump declared an energy emergency to supersede laws when there was no emergency — under President Joe Biden, we were producing more oil and gas than any other country in the world at any point in history. In 2024, the U.S. was number one in oil production for the seventh year in a row. We set a record for natural gas production and were the highest global gas producer for the 16th year in a row.

Trump declared we would be exporting American energy all over the world. In 2024, the U.S. already was a major exporter with 31% of its crude oil and 20% of its natural gas exported to 101 countries. We became the greatest exporter of LNG in 2002.

Trump has pushed for the development of AI and other data centers, threatening to withhold funding for states impeding their massive buildout. But he is oblivious to their triggering steep increases in electrical costs. Prices in our PJM grid jumped nearly 76% in the first quarter of 2026 over 2025, driven by extreme energy demand from data centers. PJM’s last two electrical purchases at auctions translated into a $13 billion cost increase for customers.

The inconvenient truth is that from 2000 through 2025, wind and solar installations accounted for more than half of new U.S. electrical generating capacity. This staggering growth accelerated in recent years, as wind and solar provided 88% of all new capacity at lower prices than fossil fuels. In 2025, Trump’s war on wind slowed wind power to only a 4% rise, one of the lowest increases in 20 years.

Cost-effective solar power generation grew by 28%, accounting for 54% of all new electricity, before his diabolic attacks took hold on solar. This is reflected in a 27% drop in solar installations in the first quarter of 2026 compared with 2025. Trump’s actions to kill tax credits and other incentives slowed solar and wind.

Biden’s seminal legislative achievement, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), was the most extensive legislation ever enacted to move the U.S. away from fossil fuels and reduce global warming emissions; it provided $370 billion in clean energy and climate investments to transform the energy sector.

Trump’s Big, Ugly Bill and other actions stripped much of the IRA’s provisions. Critical tax incentives for building commercial-scale solar and wind projects were axed after 30 years. A 30% homeowner tax credit for solar installation, geothermal heat pumps, battery storage and home energy efficiency upgrades was killed.

Gone are tax credits for U.S. companies that build solar panels and wind turbines. Also eliminated were the $7,500 credit for buying new electric cars and $4,000 for used ones, tax credits of up to $1,000 or 30% of the cost for installing EV chargers in eligible low-income or non-urban census tracts, $5 billion to build a nationwide highway EV charging network and adding thousands of charging ports at federal buildings

Trump illegally cut the $7 billion Solar for All grant program projected to save 900,000 low-income households an average of $350 annually, guaranteeing at least a 20% reduction on utility bills. Rebates of $14,000 for energy efficiency retrofits and appliance electrification for low- and moderate-income families were dropped.

Fully implementing the IRA would eventually insulate us from steep escalations in oil and gas prices from such geopolitical actions as the Straits of Hormuz blockage. Instead, China is eating our lunch, producing 80% of all solar panels and exporting $28 billion worth in 2025. Its fuel-efficient car exports surged 73% this year through May, with more than half being pure EVs and plug-in hybrids, double from last year.

Trump ended the EV credit and then rolled back auto and light truck fuel economy standards, lowering the industry-wide fuel efficiency requirement to an average of 34.5 MPG per fleet by 2031, down from 50.4. He also eliminated any financial penalties for manufacturers not meeting requirements, gutting the efficiency standards. Since 2009, these efficiency rules have saved drivers between $6,000 and $12,000 in total lifetime savings per vehicle, while cutting gas consumption by billions of gallons and decreasing millions of metric tons of climate-disrupting pollution.

While China’s EV and fuel-efficient sales boomed, domestic passenger car sales in May fell more than 23% from last May, the seventh straight monthly decline. Internal combustion-fueled vehicles declined by a huge 42% as high gas prices made EVs and hybrids more popular.

Embarrassingly, Trump rebuked world leaders at his September UN speech for being concerned about climate change, calling global warming a “con job.” He called renewable energy such as solar and wind a “scam” that should be eliminated. He urged nations instead to buy more American oil and gas.

 

Last week, 1,300 deaths occurred in Europe attributable to global warming from a record heatwave. Five U.S. western states are battling severe early forest fires, fueled by record-high temperatures and prolonged droughts. Three federal firefighters died on the Utah-Colorado border as blazes forced evacuations and blanketed the region in heavy smoke.

Here in the east, the U.S. Department of Energy approved emergency orders authorizing PJM to curtail data centers in its 13-state grid and waive power plant pollution limits as a severe heat wave approaches. We are its bullseye. Electricity demand may set records as PJM tries to avoid brownouts. Maryland utilities, including BGE, are asking customers to conserve electricity during this extreme heatwave and lower their bills.

As we suffer through a very hot Fourth of July weekend, remember that in the midterms, we need to all fight to regain sensible energy and climate legislation. Our independence from the fossil fuel goliaths is at stake.

Gerald Winegrad represented the greater Annapolis area as a Democrat in the Maryland House of Delegates and Senate for 16 years. Contact him at gwwabc@comcast.net.