America’s energy policy is starting to feel like a game of Calvinball – the anything-goes sport from Calvin and Hobbes where the rules change mid-play to favor whoever’s holding the ball. That’s the reality for utilities and energy developers trying to plan in an era of constant surprises.
A rebalancing was expected when President Donald Trump returned to office after running against expansive clean energy support and fossil fuel restrictions imposed by President Joe Biden. The path seemed straightforward: phase down subsidies for mature technologies, remove fossil impediments and build an energy dominance agenda across all sectors.
That’s what I hoped he would do.
Instead, the president went on the offensive against renewable energy, stripping wind and solar from the definition of energy resources in his executive order declaring a national energy emergency. Renewable projects lost tax support and gained new regulatory hurdles, while coal, oil and gas projects received new subsidies, accelerated approvals and relaxed environmental rules.
The policy shift extends to projects already approved. Last month, the Department of Energy canceled a loan guarantee for the Grain Belt Express, an interregional transmission line delivering cheaper, more reliable power to utilities and co-ops across 29 states – simply because it can carry renewable power to market. That’s like canceling an interstate highway because it might be used to ship vegetables you don’t like.
Utilities are doing their level best to keep up with the cascade of change affecting U.S. energy planning. They manage an aging grid with a mix of resources – old and new, intermittent and firm – that must be balanced every second of every day. Load growth is surging for the first time in a generation. Regulations proliferate, as do lawsuits. Wildfire mitigation demands more of their budgets in a hotter, drier world.
Old thermal plants are being retired faster than new resources can replace them. Trump ordered two 60-year-old plants to stay online, but that’s not a coherent long-term strategy or an affordable one for ratepayers. Yet in these volatile political times, which new resources should a utility select? How does any business future-proof against Calvinball?
Maintaining and modernizing our energy systems is a complex endeavor. It would help if America could get on the same page. Most people I know want safe, reliable, affordable energy that gets cleaner over time. That should be our national goal.
I’ve spent eight years helping to raise political will for consensus climate policies – not an easy task in a polarized world. We’re making progress, finding agreement on ways to reduce emissions from the fossil fuels we still need and innovate new zero-emission energy sources.
Geothermal, nuclear, carbon capture, and battery storage have strong bipartisan support. Tax incentives for those technologies earned yes votes from almost every congressional Democrat in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, and almost every Republican in this year’s One Big Beautiful Bill.
As for solar and wind, they deliver exceptional value when integrated into a balanced grid and will continue to be built in the U.S. despite headwinds from the Trump administration. Combined with battery storage and on-demand generation, renewables are a low-cost workhorse, contributing to a strong, flexible grid that can keep pace with a changing world.
Here’s my all-of-the-above recipe for energy abundance: build a big energy toolbox, let utilities choose the best tools for the job and keep them focused on our common goal – safe, reliable, affordable, increasingly clean power. And the rest of us should stop playing our own versions of Calvinball, tilting the game and waging war over every decision.
Politics shouldn’t be the riskiest part of America’s energy system. It’s time we started a serious dialogue with each other, including our elected representatives, about how we’re going to keep our lights on and our climate safe.
Kathy Fackler writes about energy and climate issues from Durango. Her blog, PoweringForward.org, focuses on the impacts of changing policy as our energy systems evolve.
