livescience.com
Trump can't stop America's shift to clean energy. And we can accelerate it.
Donald Trump cannot make clean energy expensive again. He can only make Americans pay extra for it. His tariffs do just that. But cost declines work like a ratchet. Every solar factory built and every panel installed pushes costs down the curve. The global price floor just keeps falling. Which means that despite Trump's best efforts to prop up fossil fuels, America will transform its electricity system. The question is how fast. And that speed is up to us. Since 2015, most of the new power built in America has been clean. This year, 93% of new electricity capacity is expected to come from solar, wind and batteries. That is not because of any president. It is because clean energy is the cheapest way to add electricity to the grid. The problem is what was built before. Today, 57% of America's power is generated from burning fossil fuels, compared to just 43% from clean sources. Even with solar and wind dominating new builds, our legacy system still uses dirty energy, which takes time to replace. The first step is getting rid of coal, which already can't compete with clean energy. Coal generates about one-sixth of our power, yet 99% of...
