OUR DAILY THREAD: Blowin' It In The Wind

Greenhouse Gasbag

THE SET-UP: On the same day Trump clearly blinked when faced with the limits of US air power in the Persian Gulf, he also reached deeply into taxpayers’ pockets to pay French energy titan TotalEnergies almost $1 billion to walk away from wind power in the United States. Per CNN:

The government is paying back TotalEnergies for federal leases it purchased under the Biden administration to develop two offshore wind farms off the coasts of New York and North Carolina. The Justice Department will use nearly $1 billion in taxpayer funds to reimburse the company for money it spent to purchase leases under the Biden administration.

This publicly-funded consolation prize is Trump’s response to a series of failed attempts to defend his claim that wind power projects should be killed because they pose a risk to national security. That justification, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists just noted, quickly followed his loss in an early lawsuit challenging his original, wind power-killing order, which a judge called “arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law.” The renewable-hating Trump regime has since been on a losing steak…

One after another, federal judges have sided with all five wind farms impacted by the Interior Department’s pause, allowing them to resume construction, at least temporarily.

As the Bulletin explains, the gamble on national security did not pay off. Not because there isn’t evidence that “large wind turbines can create ‘clutter,’ or radar interference.” It failed because the problem of “clutter” was already taken into account before the projects were approved:

All of the wind projects the Trump administration is attempting to stall or kill have gone through extensive permitting and review processes with the Defense Department and other federal agencies.

Despite that fact, the regime plowed ahead with its bogus claim and suffered the consequences:

Royce Lamberth, the district court judge who issued a preliminary injunction allowing the Sunrise Wind project in New York to continue, had the opportunity to review the classified report on wind’s supposed national security risks—but was not persuaded.

“Purportedly new classified information does not constitute a sufficient explanation for the bureau’s decision to entirely stop work on the Sunrise Wind project,” Lamberth said from the bench.

Now their answer is to simply buy-out the companies and cut-off a source of energy in the midst of an emerging energy crisis the regime created by its own war of choice against Iran. It’s a source largely insulated from the vicissitudes of Middle Eastern strongmen and zealots. Had they continued, the two TotalEnergies projects alone—located off the coasts of New York and North Carolina—promised to deliver “more than 4 gigawatts of electricity for US households and businesses.” And, the Bulletin reports, the five targeted projects together would “provide cheaper, cleaner electricity to 20 states and Washington D.C.”

You’d think that more energy would be better regardless of the aesthetics of the machines that deliver it. That appears to be the rationale behind Trump’s enthusiasm for propping up coal, which is neither clean nor beautiful. If Trump thinks offshore windmills are unsightly, he should stop by a mountaintop removal project or head downstream from the tailings, coal ash and wastewater coal mining leaves behind.

Those aren’t cheap either. And someone eventually pays, be it for environmental remediation or through illness or from catastrophic flooding. Many of those costs get passed onto taxpayers on the back end when the government has to step in long after the mining company has gone, which has been happening more and more as the diversifying renewable energy market helped put the 19th Century to rest. The broader market has simply been moving on from the source of black lung and acid rain.

But then Trump became Hydrocarbon Jesus and laid his hands on ugly, dirty coal …and gave it new life in Him. Because of this resurrection, the US taxpayer is on the hook for upwards of $500 million to “re-commission and upgrade” dying coal plants. So far, they’ve blocked retirements “in Colorado, Indiana, Michigan and Washington state.” As Stateline recently explained, there’s a lot more … and a lot less … to follow:

Observers expect similar orders to be issued for most, if not all, of the dozens of coal-fired units slated for retirement during the remainder of Trump’s term. Utilities subject to the orders have said they will increase costs for ratepayers, and argue those costs should be borne by the multistate region to which they provide power, rather than just their local customers.

Despite their costs, three of the five plants being blocked from retirement haven’t produced electricity since the emergency orders went into effect, either because they need extensive repairs or because power demands have been met without them.

In other words, many of these plants will need to be subsidized just to be brought online. Taxpayers are being asked to pay to kill a soon-to-come-online source of clean energy and to revive a dying, deadly and dirty fuel.

Meanwhile, China is slowly phasing out coal, but its also the world’s leader in renewable energy and in manufacturing renewable systems. That both anticipates and feeds a global trend reaffirmed by a new study by the British think tank Ember Energy, which found the world building more wind and solar power plants than ever:

In total, 814 gigawatts of solar and wind power capacity were installed worldwide in 2025, Ember Energy announced. Together, the newly installed plants can produce 1.046 petawatt-hours of clean electricity, according to Ember Energy.

The expansion in 2025 was the largest in any single year to date. In 2024, 696 gigawatts were installed; the growth in 2025 compared to 2024 corresponds to 17 percent. Solar energy accounted for the larger share: in 2025, 647 gigawatts of solar capacity were installed, an increase of 11 percent compared to the previous year (582 gigawatts). Wind energy added 167 gigawatts, compared to 113 gigawatts in the previous year, which corresponds to an increase of 47 percent compared to 2024.

And coal?

Ember Energy reported that in the first half of 2025, wind and solar power plants supplied more electricity than coal-fired power plants for the first time.

And European countries Trump excoriates for investing in renewables?

In the European Union, in 2025 – despite partly unfavorable weather conditions, more electricity was generated from wind and solar energy than from all fossil fuels combined for the first time.

It raises a simple question: If energy independence is the goal, why wouldn’t an “America First” president embrace harnessing American wind and American sunshine, even if only to help feed the insatiable AI beast he’s unleashed on a nation with an aging, hydrocarbon-dependent grid? And why not use those coal funds to jumpstart solar panel manufacturing right here in the USA?

The question is underlined by the $2 million per day tab Trump is running-up to attack Iran. And the American people get to pay that tab twice—through an immediate spike to the cost of living and then longer-term through the impacts of a ballooning national debt.

The stakes got even higher after Trump’s threat to bomb Iranian power plants also threatened to turn the Strait of Hormuz into Iwo Jima and, therefore, the global economy into a proverbial “parking lot.” But he blinked, which could be a response to a variety of political headwinds or pressure points, but the price of gas really is the bottom line in US politics. That he likely blinked to avoid another week of rising gas and falling stock prices only underscores the utility of diversifying energy production.

Just imagine if the global economy did not depend on keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. And what if the US did not have to maintain a significant military presence in the Middle East?

That’s exactly the kind of America First policy he sold to war-weary Americans throughout three election cycles. But somehow the Fifth Fleet being based in Bahrain doesn’t bother Trump like US forces stationed around NATO. Then again, how many billions have the Europeans given Trump and his family for services rendered?

For some, his “betrayal” of MAGA and American First is a dealbreaker, but, if you believe the polling, it is not nearly as many as some assume. If you believe CNN’s Harry Enton, MAGA is 100% behind Hydrocarbon Jesus. But polling by his pollsters offers this interesting wrinkle:

A recent poll from the chief pollster for President Trump, Fabrizio Lee and Associates, showed that a clear majority of Republicans support expanding solar power in the United States. In the survey, 68 percent of Republican Party voters surveyed agreed that “we need all forms of electricity generation, including utility solar, to be built to lower electricity costs”. Meanwhile, 70 percent of respondents said they support utility-scale solar deployment when projects use U.S.-produced materials.

But wait, there’s more…

A separate poll from Kellyanne Conway’s KA Consulting revealed that three-quarters of Trump voters surveyed in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Texas believe that solar power should be used to strengthen and increase the U.S. energy supply. The results of the polls reflect the outcome of a Pew Research Centre survey conducted last spring, which showed that six in 10 Republican respondents were in favour of solar power, as well as nine out of 10 Democrats surveyed.

It also turns out that so-called “Red States” “now leading the country” in solar development and, oilprice.com reports, Red States are now leading the country in terms of solar deployment:

Last year, approximately 73 percent of all new U.S. solar capacity was developed in states that voted for President Trump in 2024, such as Texas, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Arkansas.

…in fact…

Texas recently achieved a new energy milestone when it surpassed California in solar power production to become the top U.S. producer of utility-scale solar electricity. Texas produced over 58.6 GWh of solar power in 2025, compared to California’s 53.7 GWh, according to recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In February, the Texas electricity grid was running on 30 GW of solar power, meaning solar resources contributed around 60 percent of the total electricity demand. During a time of geopolitical turmoil, solar power is helping to keep Texas’s electricity prices stable.

Imagine that.

Amazingly enough, there are places in Trump country where you don’t have to. - jp

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Humans are very stupid: Iran war, Strait of Hormuz & climate collapse expose our biggest failure | POV
https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/iran-war-strait-of-hormuz-and-climate-collapse-reveal-our-biggest-failure-point-of-view-2885108-2026-03-21

Chinese Startup Launches Rapidly Deployable Floating Wind Turbine
https://www.thomasnet.com/insights/linyi-yunchuan-s2000-stratosphere-airborne-wind-energy-system/

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Dominion Energy’s Virginia offshore wind project delivers its first power
https://www.pilotonline.com/2026/03/23/dominion-energys-virginia-offshore-wind-project-delivers-its-first-power/