Trump can't stop America's shift to clean energy. And we can accelerate it.
The cost of clean energy just keeps falling as the price of coal ramps up. Politicians promising affordability will follow those savings no matter who is in the White House. And in the meantime, there are ways to speed up the transition, says associate professor Leah Stokes .
Donald Trump's inability to make clean energy more expensive is evident in the cost declines driving the shift. Despite his efforts to prop up fossil fuels, clean energy remains the cheapest way to add electricity to the grid. Since 2015, 93% of new electricity capacity has been clean, with solar, wind and batteries leading the way.
The legacy system still relies on dirty energy, but coal's cost advantage is disappearing as 99% of American coal plants are more expensive to keep open than replace with new solar, wind and storage. Gas plants, the remaining source of emissions, are now outpriced by solar paired with batteries. While concerns about rising electricity demand from AI and electrification exist, new solar plants and batteries can be built in under two years, faster than gas plant construction.
States can accelerate the transition by removing barriers to plug-in solar and electric vehicles, allowing households and businesses to generate and store their own clean energy. The clean energy transition is a wave, with each surge building on the last. The real question is how fast we replace the old system, but that is largely up to us.
Written by urgent.news from Live Science's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
