Being tugged back and forth by the federal government has caused whiplash for American companies. Now we know exactly how much.
During the Biden administration, federal incentives were put in place to push companies into developing clean energy technologies. Hundreds of projects were put in motion, costing billions of dollars, to do just that. Only a few years later, the Trump administration reversed those Biden-era policies, causing the stalling or cancellation of 223 different projects, totaling $82.9 billion in lost investments.
Those figures come from a report by the BlueGreen Alliance, an American non-profit for labor unions and environmental groups. According to the report, 111,765 jobs were lost as a result of these project cancellations.
“The resulting figures clearly illustrate the staggering loss of investment and job creation that the policies of this administration and Congress have brought about,” said BlueGreen Alliance’s vice president of research, Roxanne Johnson, in a statement.
Photo by: General Motors
Even though the actual numbers are alarming to see, this shouldn’t come as much of a shock. Trump has long been a vocal opponent of all kinds of alternative fuels, like solar or wind. His absurdly named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” also killed off the federal tax credits and incentives for customers buying both new and used EVs.
The damage of this federal about-face on environmental policy could continue to wreak havoc on the industry. The same report from BlueGreen Alliance claims that 3,034 more projects now face stricter tax credit requirements, which puts $695.2 billion at risk, threatening almost 1.2 million jobs. Additionally, many of the jobs that remain face health risks, as the EPA has reversed hazard protection rules for some industries. For instance, rules that were put in place to protect coal miners from breathing in silica dust were rolled back, which could bring back black lung disease.
It comes as a surprise to no one that reversals of green energy policies are costing the energy sector big bucks. Now we finally have the numbers.