US renewable energy booms despite obstacles

States and cities going green despite Trump’s pro-fossil fuel moves

Trump’s threat to quit the Paris accord not stopping the industry from growing.

Washington: Renewable energy continues to grow in the United States, despite US President Donald Trump’s moves to dismantle clean power, deregulate industry and promote fossil fuels like coal, experts say.

Five months after Trump declared the United States would withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord, the Republican leader continues to unravel the environmental legacy of his predecessor, Democrat Barack Obama.

A signature piece of Trump’s strategy has been to roll back regulations, including the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which aimed to cut US emissions from power plants for the first time.

“They are trying to put their fingers on the scale in favour of coal and other polluting fossil fuels, and trying to do things to slow down the penetration of clean, renewable energy technologies, so that is the landscape,” said Alden Meyer, director of strategy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

But many state and city governments have pressed on with their fight against climate change, and the job force of those working in renewable energies continues to expand nationwide.

“The trend is very clear,” added Meyer.

“To fight Trump, the investment and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency have continued growing.”

Employment in the solar industry grew 24.5% in 2016 compared to a year earlier, reaching a workforce of nearly 374,000 people, according to an Energy Department report.

Traditional fossil fuels employed just 187,000 people, it said.

Employment in US wind energy rose 32% to nearly 102,000 people.

“The renewable energy industry is already working here,” said Frank Maisano, senior principal at Bracewell, a law and government relations firm serving the energy industry.”

Solar and wind energy combined now produce 10% of the total electricity in the United States, according to the Energy Department.

In March, 8% of the nation’s electricity came from wind and two percent from solar.

In states like California, renewa- bles made up an even larger proportion of electricity production.

Climate science expert Michael Mann, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said it is possible that the United States will reach its commitment to cut emissions under the Paris accord regardless of what Trump says or does.

“There is enough progress now at the local and state level, commitment from major companies, movement toward renewable energy etc. that most pundits now think we’ll reach our Paris targets with or without Trump’s explicit complicity,” Mann said in an e-mail

Elliot Diringer, an expert at the Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions, a non-governmental organisation in Washington, agreed.

“We recently looked at the different analyses and it looks to us like even with the situation at the moment our emissions in 2025 are likely to be 14% to 18% below 2005,” Diringer said.

To fight Trump, the investment and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency have continued growing.

Alden Meyer