The Santa Fe New Mexican reports on the rollback of federal renewable energy tax credits following the passage of H.R. 1, which will slow down advanced energy projects in New Mexico. United's Harry Godfrey and Amisha Rai encourage state leaders to step up to meet climate and energy reliability goals as federal support decreases, highlighting the resilience of the clean energy industry.
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump warned of an energy crisis. Demand for energy was increasing, he wrote in an executive order Jan. 20, and costs were rising for residential energy.
In the months since, the administration has promoted oil and gas, coal and nuclear power as ways to combat that crisis. At the same time, the administration has rolled back incentives for renewable energy programs and cut funding for research.
“The policies of the previous administration have driven our Nation into a national emergency, where a precariously inadequate and intermittent energy supply, and an increasingly unreliable grid, require swift and decisive action,” Trump wrote in the Jan. 20 order.
Besides cuts in federal spending on renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, Trump signed an executive order July 7 that will halt incentives for renewable energy like solar and wind, which he wrote were unreliable, dependent on foreign supply chains and costly for taxpayers.
States may need to do more
In a panel last week, national industry group Advanced Energy United discussed how the rollbacks might affect states in the West — and how they can respond.
Amisha Rai, the group’s vice president of policy, said states will need to step up and take on additional responsibility. There were a little over 13,400 clean energy jobs in New Mexico in 2024, according to a report from environmental and economic-development group E2 and the Renewable Energy Industries Association of New Mexico, largely in energy efficiency and solar.
“There’s so much focus on the federal package; the focus now needs to be on what states can do,” Rai said.
Despite saying renewable energy would be stymied by cuts and federal policy changes, Harry Godfrey, who leads Advanced Energy United’s federal priorities, said the industry wasn’t doomed.
“Anyone who’s writing the obituary of the advanced energy industry right now should put their pens down,” Godfrey said. “We’ve seen this sort of volatility and variation [of] the market and policy, and we’ve endured that, even when we had less developed technology and a less mature industry.”
He added, “We are built to endure, sustain and continue to grow.”
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