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spy77 slot Climate Activists Need to Radically Change Their Approach Under Trump
Donald Trump’s return to Washington might seem like a terrifying moment for the fight against climate change. The incoming administration is not just hostile to the energy transition; it’s also expected to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, roll back a wide range of pollution regulations and promote domestic fossil fuel production — decisions likely to worsen global warming.
But America’s energy market has evolved since 2020, in part because of new laws that are speeding the expansion of solar, wind and other energy technologies to reduce emissions. Both the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act were passed by a fractious Congress because of an important shift: Policymakers moved away from treating climate change as a moral crusade against fossil fuel villains to treating it as a problem of technological innovation and industrial strategy.
When Mr. Trump takes power, policymakers — as well as philanthropists, nonprofits and ordinary citizens passionate about climate change — must continue this strategy rather than revert to the old playbook of regulations, lawsuits and industry vilification. That means being cleareyed about priorities and expanding the number of powerful interests that stand to benefit from more aggressive climate action.
The shift in climate politics that produced the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law didn’t happen by accident. The bills’ champions in Congress and the administration understood that for these laws to endure, they would need to propel forward many different technologies to solve climate change: not just renewable energy but also next-generation technologies popular with Republicans, such as carbon capture, enhanced geothermal and nuclear energy. Over time, the laws have gained support by engaging diverse interests across the country that stood to benefit materially from the energy transition, from small farmers in South Carolina who are now getting free solar panels to the power company Calpine, which now has access to tax credits for carbon capture.
This approach has triggered billions of dollars of investment in everything from mines and processing facilities for critical minerals to carbon capture demonstration projects. It is also reshaping the political landscape: According to a Washington Post analysis, districts that largely voted for Mr. Trump in 2020 received three times as much clean energy and manufacturing investments under the I.R.A. as those that largely voted for Mr. Biden. And today nine of the 10 congressional districts receiving the most clean energy investments following the I.R.A. are represented by Republicans.
Driving investment to red states wasn’t an electoral strategy. The goal wasn’t to turn red districts blue by building battery factories. The aim was to create durable economic incentives that would survive political transitions. When decarbonization becomes good business, it becomes harder to dismantle climate progress.
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