Here's Why Trump's War on Wind Farms Isn't Just Hot Air

President Trump has never failed to hide his dislike for wind farms. He says they massacre birds, cause cancer, and drive whales crazy. But now his attack on renewable power is reshaping the US energy landscape, jeopardizing thousands of jobs, and billions in investment. His administration is stopping wind farms and solar projects, revoking permits, and making every effort to reverse President Biden's green agenda. Rachel Morison, who leads Bloomberg's, Power, Gas, and Renewables Coverage in Europe joins host Caroline Hepker to discuss

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. I'm Caroline Hebkea, and
this is his Why, where we take one news story
and explain it in just a few minutes with our
experts here at Bloomberg. They're ugly, they don't work, they

(00:23):
kill your birds, they bid for the environment. So I'm
trying to have people learn about wind real fast.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Some countries are still trying, and they're destroying themselves.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
President Trump is crystal clear about his dislike for wind farms.
He says they're too expensive and inefficient, that they spoil
the view, they cause cancer, and even drive whales crazy.
But now President Trump's attacks on renewable power are fundamentally
reshaping the US energy landscape, jeopardizing thousands of jobs and

(00:58):
billions of dollars in investment at home and abroad. His
administration is stepping up its efforts to reverse President Biden's
environmental agenda, revoking permits for wind farms and solar projects
and ending some all together. With me in the studio

(01:19):
is Rachel Morrison, who leads Bloomberg's Power, gas, and renewables
coverage in Europe. Why does Trump loathe renewables and what
he sometimes calls windmills.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
In particular, it is, as you mentioned, for a variety
of reasons, from what we sort of thought at the beginning,
which was some of his friends who had homes off
the coast of New England didn't like the look of
the turbines spoiling their view. And Trump also has a
golf course in Scotland and he doesn't like to look

(01:51):
out at wind farms when he's playing golf there. So
there's that part of it. And then we've heard all
kinds of reasons from him, from cancer to impact it
has on whales. None of those things have any scientific proof.
But what we are seeing is for whatever reason he
dislikes wind farms, it is showing up in real policy

(02:11):
and stopping things being built.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
How is the US administration ramping up? Then it's anti
renewables agenda.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
In many ways, we're seeing it in how policies are made.
At the beginning of this administration, Trump's second he said
that they wouldn't be taking into account climate change and
the cost of climate change into any policies. And what
we're seeing is him revoking or his minister's revoking permits.

(02:42):
So sometimes those are for projects that haven't been started
and are still in development, and that's very disruptive and
bad for investment. But we have seen examples, and this
is more serious, where our wind farm is already being
built and one that's almost eighty percent finished that has
had a stop work issued to it. So it ranges,

(03:02):
but it's really taking away the permission to build these
projects that he has been focusing on.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
How much is this then about denying climate change?

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Trump himself sort of hasn't clearly denied climate change, although
it's true that it's not just wind he dislikes, it's
also solar. He sort of seems to be taking in
to account lots of different viewpoints. You know, with solar,
he doesn't like it because of farmers with wind, he
doesn't like the look of them. So some of it

(03:33):
is to do with his own personal view, but we
have seen across the administration a sort of attempt to
undo some of the climate policies that had been put
in place. So, you know, a lot of that comes
down to his views on drill, baby drill. You know
that often cited phrase that he would prefer America to
focus on oil and gas, which they have a lot of,

(03:56):
and the price is low rather than building renewables.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
What's his the impact on the US economy then of
these decisions? How much does it weaken the US economy? Yeah,
it could have a really serious impact. And that's one
of the things I think we find most surprising when
talking about this story is that it's not just the
jobs and the companies that have set up US businesses

(04:19):
to develop these projects. It's also the investment climate. Because
if you have a government that is changing policy after
investment decisions have been made, that has a huge impact
for the cost of capital and the risk involved with
those projects. And we are hearing people talking about whether
that can be extended to non renewables projects too. Just

(04:41):
it's expensive to build in America because political risk is high,
and that is something that Donald Trump will not want
to see, but it is definitely a factor. What does
this mean for the global economy and the international businesses
like AUSTED and others who have made these decisions.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, particularly for the Europeans who have gone to the
US to try to expand their offshore wind businesses. So
we have ORSTED, we have rwe we have ibadrola. There's
a big impact because this was a way to grow
their businesses and they're now unable to do that. And
we have Equinor as well, who had a project that

(05:22):
was restarted after being stopped. But there's a cost to
it because all of these companies have got supply chains,
have got people lined up to do all the work,
so you know, they have to pay fines and things
if they don't complete on contracts. So it's not no
cost to even stop or delay a project. It has

(05:43):
a huge knock on effect. And these companies, you know,
when they're coming and reporting earnings, Astead has been hugely
hit by what's gone on in the US and they're
having to do an enormous cattle raise to try to
stabilize the business because they had gone big in US
offshore wind and a lot of those projects have either
been canceled or they still have two that have a

(06:05):
big question mark over them.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
On the other side of this story, building wind power
does have some disadvantages. Have some investments in renewables been hotter.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yes, we have heard that argument, especially from US Energy
Secretory Chris Right, that it's a government funded business, you know,
building wind farms, and yes, in throughout Europe, renewables do
receive government subsidies. But the cost of the technology has
come down hugely over time. And what sort of happened

(06:40):
is we've reached almost a bottom a floor for that
when it's come to offshore wind. So the cost has
come down enormously to the point where it is competitive.
And now those costs a rising slightly, and that's for
many reasons, supply chain costs, inflation, you know, just a
kind of it's more expensive to borrow money to build
these product so the cost is coming up slightly. But

(07:03):
you know, it's not that they're not profitable or they
only can survive with government support, but because they needed
to get up and running. In the US, the industry
is nonexistent. It does need some subsidy, but the idea
is that later on it will stand on its own
and give you free power.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Well, how much then does the Trump campaign end US
support for clean energy, in particular wind power? Could it
be reverse in future?

Speaker 2 (07:32):
I think at the moment we have all kinds of
a sort of a range of expectations from people from
Trump could extend what he's doing to permits from just
offshore to onshore as well, and then possibly to solar.
So it could get worse in some people's mind, and

(07:52):
then on the other hand, people sort of think, well,
he could be done. I think most of the reporting
that we've done, and also the New York Times has done,
shows that there is a significant push within the administration
to stop these offhra wind projects being built. And I mean,
why would you come back if you think that policy

(08:12):
is going to change every four years. That's not what
investors like as a stable environment to invest in. So
I think it could be permanently damaging if it gets
to the point where projects are permanently halted.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Rachel, thank you for speaking to me. Rachel Morrison, who
leads Bloomberg's power, gas, and renewables coverage in Europe. Thank
you For more explanations like this from our team of
three thousand journalists and analysts around the world. Go to
Bloomberg dot com slash explain us. I'm Caroline hepget this
is here's why. We'll be back next week with more.

(08:49):
Thanks for listening.