When it comes to clean energy, President Donald Trump and Colorado aren’t just on different pages — they might be said to be on different planets.

By 2030, Colorado aspires to put almost a million electric vehicles on the road, cut its greenhouse gas emissions 50%, and shut down its remaining coal-fire power plants. 

The state also aims to have 100% clean energy generation by 2040 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, while adding tens of thousands of rooftop solar arrays and electric heat pumps in energy efficient buildings.

To which Trump, in an executive order, said:

“For too long, the Federal Government has forced American taxpayers to subsidize expensive and unreliable energy sources like wind and solar. The proliferation of these projects displaces affordable, reliable, dispatchable domestic energy sources, compromises our electric grid, and denigrates the beauty of our Nation’s natural landscape.”

The message in the order is very clear, said KC Becker, the CEO of the Colorado Solar Energy and Storage Association, a trade group.

“Just the name of the order — Ending Market Distorting Subsidies For Foreign Controlled Energy Sources — is so inaccurate and it tells you that Donald Trump isn’t prioritizing what he ought to be,” she said.

Becker, the former Colorado House Speaker, was sponsor of House Bill 1261, or the Climate Action Plan, the 2019 law that set the state’s greenhouse gas reduction targets and called for “clean energy plans” from all the state’s utilities.

The Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the president’s executive order will deal a blow to Colorado’s statutory climate and clean energy goals. 

The state is already behind on its efforts to meet the 2030 target for a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over a 2005 baseline, and the end of subsidies for EVs will crimp the likelihood of getting 1 million on the roads by that year.

Coloradans will also lose access to credits for heat pumps to replace gas-fired furnaces, and other energy efficiency home improvements.

“It is too soon for us to be able to completely assess the impacts,” said Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office. “They’re clearly all negative. We know that they’re going to have the effect of making energy more expensive for consumers.”

The state remains on pace to close its last six coal-fired power plants by 2030, allowing the state’s utilities meeting their 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target of 80%, but once again the Trump administration is seeking a delay citing concerns of grid reliability.

Nevertheless, state officials, industry representatives and energy analysts say the OBBA, as the act is known, and other Trump administration’s actions will not stop Colorado’s clean energy transition.

EVs will still be sold albeit at a slower rate. Wind and solar generation will still be built although with a higher price tag and energy efficiency improvements will be made with the support of the state, local and utility initiatives.

All thanks to a suite of state programs, policies, laws and mandates to utilities promoting clean energy and energy efficiency.

“Colorado’s energy industry and goals will ultimately weather the disastrous impacts of this bill, in part, because Colorado has already invested basically years and years in the right of policy leadership and business attraction,” said Emilie Olson, a principal at the energy industry trade group, Advanced Energy United.

One unavoidable impact for Colorado households, however, is going to be higher energy bills, according to several analyses of OBBA.

Energy Innovation estimates the act will increase electricity bills in Colorado by 14% to 21% with annual bills rising $170 by 2030 and $310 by 2035.