Remember how Trump campaigned against “Bidenflation”? With good reason, Americans were tired of paying high prices for everything, including their energy bills. Now, his tariffs and attack on renewables are contributing to rising energy costs. From January to May 2025, the average price of household energy increased ten percent, according to a July report by Climate Power that analyzed data from the federal Energy Information Administration. (Some places were hit much harder: New Jersey saw a 20 percent increase as of June.) And that was before the bloodletting of the past week; Revolution Wind was set to begin supplying power for 350,000 homes next year, while the Maryland project was expected to power some 718,000 homes.
During his campaign, and early in his presidency, Trump nattered on about supposed government waste and fraud. That was his stated reason for empowering Elon Musk to oversee the new Department of Government Efficiency, which proved as misguided and destructive as you’d expect from the world’s richest, most overrated man. Everyone agrees that the government shouldn’t be wasteful or squander taxpayers’ hard-earned money, but by taking a wrecking ball to the renewable energy industry, Trump is in many cases creating more government waste and squandering more tax dollars. In canceling the wind farms off Maryland and Rhode Island (in the case of Revolution Wind, a project that was nearly 80 percent complete), Trump is wasting millions in state and federal monies that have already been spent.
Trump is doubling down. “We’re not allowing any windmills to go up. They’re ruining our country,” he said Tuesday. He continued spouting lies about wind turbines’ impact on the environment and property values (the climate crisis, of course, imperils both far more). With his batty crusade against wind, Trump reveals his deep lack of interest in the wellbeing of the American working class, whether as workers, consumers, or taxpayers. And in his indifference to the billions already invested by private companies in these projects, he’s signaling to energy companies worldwide that the U.S. is the last place they should try to build anything. It’s a surefire recipe for American weakness.
