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Members of environmental groups as well as clean energy stakeholders gathered with U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, D-Downers Grove, on Friday for a roundtable to discuss how the temporarily halted federal funding freeze may impact climate action.
Although President Donald Trump’s funding freeze has been paused by a federal judge, much uncertainty remains over the future of clean energy solutions such as solar and wind.
For the near future, one of Casten’s biggest concerns is a Constitutional crisis due to the new administration.
“We have a president who does not feel constrained by the Constitution or the law,” Casten said. “We have laws that we passed that are rapidly decarbonizing our energy system and bringing on low [energy] cost assets.”
“Those are the laws.” Casten said. “You can change the laws, but to change the laws you need to get votes.”
“The current administration does not feel compelled to honor the bounds of the U.S. Constitution about how to change the law and feels they won’t be held into account,” he added.
Casten said this has led the government to not provide the funds which they are “legally obligated to distribute under current law.”
Clean energy providers “are saying they can’t deploy in this environment,” he said.
As a result, clean energy companies may consider winding down their business or moving to another country such as Canada or Mexico with a more stable regulatory environment, he added.
“Those businesses invest in the United States because they understand that the United States is a place where you have robust contract law, robust rule of law,” Casten said, “If you sign a contract with the U.S. government, they will honor that contract. If they can’t trust those things anymore, all of a sudden they stop investing in the United States.”
Renewable energy generates over 20% of all U.S. electricity from mostly wind, hydropower, and solar, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
“We generate more power today from solar and wind, than we do from coal”—a huge change over the last 10 years, Casten said.
President Trump has long been a strong vocal critic of green energy initiatives, promising to commit more investments in and promotion of fossil fuels.
At one time the future of renewable sources of energy was bright, profitable for businesses, cheaper for consumers and provided additional jobs in a growing sector.
However, the current White House administration leaves more questions to those interested in investing time and money in new projects around the country, Casten said.
As a result, “Do we slow the rate of construction on new projects so that more people can’t benefit from cheap energy?”
The Inflation Reduction Act passed under President Joe Biden invested $369 billion over 10 years to support renewable energy, pollution reduction, and environmental justice, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
The act also was intended to help lower household energy costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating more than 20 tax incentives for clean energy and manufacturing.
It also reduced the need for fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. Protecting the Act and the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act is chief among Casten’s priorities, he said.
Jordan Berman-Cutler, director of government affairs with Invenergy, a large-scale renewable and other clean energy developer said the industry is in a growth period.
“We are in an era of energy expansion. We need many resources—and let’s let the lowest cost resource win the day,” Berman-Cutler said.
Casten came to the clean energy roundtable after an earlier meeting with a group of local educators.
Commenting briefly on the immigration raids occurring throughout the country, he said there is “massive fear.”
“What do they do if federal law enforcement shows up at the door to the school and says they are going to come in.” Casten said, “We can’t normalize federal law enforcement coming into a school.”