Clean Energy Investment Is Up Under Trump

New York nuclear plant, hydrogen investments in Va., La. cast doubt on press claims

In today’s newsletter:

A media accountability post about Trump and energy.

Also: Robert Kagan versus Ken Griffin on whether Trump is a grave threat to the Constitution.

Also: “Crimson Courage” or Crimson Cowards?

Also: How are Israeli planes reaching Iranian airspace? What countries are granting overflight access and why?

A residential rooftop solar panel is one form of alternative energy.

You can’t open a newspaper or news website these days without encountering some headline predicting that President Trump is the death knell for alternative energy.

Here a Wall Street Journal headline from June 20, over a story by by a reporter named Yusuf Khan: “The U.S. Gave Up Its Lead in Clean Energy Sectors Before. It Might Be Doing It Again.” Subheadline: “The Trump administration’s move to roll back hydrogen, carbon capture and green energy initiatives is likely to play into China and Europe’s hands, say industry leaders.”

Note the weasel words of “might” and “likely.”

Here’s a Bloomberg News article from June 23, headlined, “US Clean-Energy Project Cancellations Hit GOP Districts Hardest.” It begins, “Clean energy investments in the US are shrinking fast amid the rollback of tax incentives and policy uncertainties under President Donald Trump’s administration, with Republican districts hardest hit.” It goes on, “The clean energy industry is rapidly losing investments at a time US utilities are rushing to meet the growing power demand from data centers expansion and new factories. More projects are poised for cancellations as Trump continues undermining renewable power sources.”

These stories are misleading.

The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, today announced that New York will develop the first new nuclear power plant in New York in a generation. Also today, Linde announced a $400 million investment in an “air separation unit” to supply oxygen and nitrogen to a “low-carbon ammonia” plant in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. Last month, a Danish company, Topsoe, announced a $400 million project in Chesterfield County, Virginia to build a facility to make “clean hydrogen fuel.”

The Clean Investment Monitor, an MIT-affiliated database, reports that in the first quarter of 2025, $67 billion was invested in “the manufacture and deployment of clean energy, clean vehicles, building electrification and carbon management technology,” which is “a 7% increase relative to the same period in 2024.”

One could claim that if the Democrats rather than Republicans had taken control of the White House and Congress the growth would be even more. Tax changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill may eventually adjust the story. But for all the “drill baby drill” talk, the demand for energy is great, and the potential of lower-cost and possibly more environmentally friendly alternatives to fossil fuels is strong enough that markets and politicians from both political parties are not going to abandon investing in these projects. They may pull back a bit to focus on what makes sense in a context of less extravagant federal government subsidies. But the press catastrophism is unwarranted. It reads as classic media negativity bias accelerated by newsroom distaste for Trump.

The Editors gave advance notice of this. Back on March 7, 2024, we reported, “In both the AP and NPR interviews, Kerry dismissed the idea Trump beating Biden in the 2024 election would be an insurmountable setback for the climate. To NPR, he noted that during Trump’s first term, mayors and governors adhered to clean-energy goals. ‘No one prime minister, one king, one president anywhere in the world is able to stop what the marketplace of the world is now moving towards,’ Kerry told NPR.”

Juxtaposition of the Day: Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Robert Kagan, writing in the Atlantic: “the United States is well down the road to dictatorship at home….Donald Trump has assumed dictatorial control over the nation’s law enforcement. The Justice Department, the police, ICE agents, and the National Guard apparently answer to him, not to the people or the Constitution. He has neutered Congress by effectively taking control of the power of the purse. … he is actively and openly turning the U.S. military into his personal army, for use as he sees fit, including as a tool of domestic oppression…Today, the United States itself is at risk of being turned into a military dictatorship. Its liberal-democratic institutions have all but crumbled. The Founders’ experiment may be coming to an end.”

Citadel founder and investor Ken Griffin, talking to Bloomberg: “People like to talk about how the current administration has put some of the principles in the Constitution at risk; I think that’s largely overblown when it’s all said and done.”

Globe Seeks Three-Generation Harvard Family, Agrees Not To Ask About Legacy Admissions: From the Facebook feed of “Crimson Courage,” the Democrat-allied group that is unhelpfully pushing Harvard not to settle with the Trump administration:

“Time sensitive request: The Boston Globe Magazine would like to do a piece about the changes at Harvard over the years, and they would like to speak with a 3-generation Harvard family. They need to be able to speak with all three alums: the grandparent, the parent, and the child (who may be an adult). Our media pros can help you and your family prepare for the interviews with some basic media training and we can help to set ground rules about off-limits topics with the reporter. Anyone interested?...Thanks for your support - we have spoken with the Globe at length about what is on the table and off the table. Legacy admissions are off the table - we would not have put anyone in that position!”

Agreeing to avoid certain topics—like legacy admissions when interviewing a three-generation Harvard family—as a condition of an interview is generally frowned upon by high-quality editors and news organizations. It’s hard to know how much of this stuff goes on. It’s not something I would encourage or that I recall happening in any newsroom I ran. If it happens, it should be disclosed to readers— “a condition of our interview with so-and-so was that we would not ask about such-and-such.” Otherwise it’s misleading, because readers generally assume a reporter is allowed to ask anything newsworthy and relevant, with nothing off limits. That’s what a free and independent press does. It’s somewhat ironic because Crimson Courage bills itself as standing up for “academic freedom” but when it comes to press freedom to ask tough questions, Crimson Courage doesn’t seem to have much courage itself. Crimson Cowards might be more accurate.

Israeli overflights: How are Israeli air force planes getting to Iran, which is roughly a thousand mile distance away? The most direct route is through Jordan and Iraq. Illustrations published by the Israel Defense Forces on social media show a northern route, with Israeli planes flying over Syria and either Northern Iraq or Turkey.

In response to my question today about what we should conclude from the ability of Israeli planes to readily access Iran, the founder and chairman of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, Brigadier General (Res.) Amir Avivi, said, “the reality is that many of these countries view Iran as a big enemy.” The Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan “view Iran as a big threat,” he said. Iran is Shiite while many of the other countries, including Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, are dominated by Sunni Islam.

“There will be peace agreements after this war and there might be some surprising ones,” Avivi said, mentioning Lebanon as one possibility if the defeat of Iran allows the expulsion of its proxy Hezbollah.