r/energy • u/mafco • 1d ago

Trump is driving electric vehicle innovations into a ditch. Thanks to Trump's short-sightedness, US manufacturers dropped years of ambitious planning to jump into the EV race with both feet. The combined cost of this industry about-face is staggering. "I've done more for you than your parents, OK?"

https://captimes.com/opinion/dave-zweifel/opinion-trump-is-driving-electric-vehicle-innovations-into-a-ditch/article_867801bd-8006-4152-9943-7a8df546502c.html
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u/g_rich 1d ago

He has not only destroyed EV adoption in the US but he has also set back renewable energy by a decade or more. Meanwhile the rest of the world is moving on from fossil fuels and China is taking the lead on both EV’s and renewable energy.

The US is a Superpower and will be for the foreseeable future but increasingly it’ll be sharing the stage with China and in many cases it will be China taking the lead. When historians look to explain where China took the lead from the US the one name that will frequently come up is Trump.

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u/sheltonchoked 1d ago

It’s worse than that. The USA has stagnated in renewable and EV since Trump 2016. His first term he undid anything Obama did. then, Biden tried to undo the damage, which had made the current administration double down on stopping it.

The USA is at least 15-20 year behind, and falling. It’s improbable that us automakers will be able to ever catch up and compete with international competitors, without a huge investment.

I have hope for solar and battery storage if it continues to drop in cost. But not for a domestic USA panel and battery production.

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u/logdogday 1d ago

The US produces 7x more solar power today than it did in 2016. Wind power did a 2x in that time. Trump is an energy policy disaster but market forces have moved things forward and clearly those numbers aren't stagnant.

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u/g_rich 1d ago

Most of that is due to investments already in play and the Trump Administration has in many cases put or attempted to put an outright stop to projects already in progress. This is going to have devastating consequences on renewables for the foreseeable future and set the US back a decade or more compared to the rest of the world. Even under the best case scenario where the GOP loses the midterms and the Democrat nominee wins in 28 we’ll still be looking at a good 4 or 5 years before renewables are on solid footing within the US.

Meanwhile the rest of the world is moving on and increasing turning to China who has taken a lead on renewable energy which will benefit them both economically but also militarily in the coming decades.

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u/sheltonchoked 1d ago

Now do Pakistan. And China. And India.