The Denver Post reports that President Trump’s Department of Energy has cut $7.6 billion worth of clean energy projects across the nation, with over $550 million of those dollars tied to Colorado. State officials and environmental groups immediately decried the move as “political,” claiming Trump is targeting blue states and sabotaging the transition to renewable energy. By the way, who decided we were “transitioning” to renewable energy? That’s right, the metro elites in the legislature.
Among the axed projects: $326 million earmarked for Colorado State University to study methane emissions, and hundreds of millions more aimed at solar expansion and bioenergy efforts. Federal officials justified the cuts by saying the projects were economically unviable and failed to advance U.S. energy needs. In short, the plug got pulled on what critics have long called ideological indulgences dressed up as energy policy.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Trump eliminated $7.6 billion in green energy projects nationally, including $550 million in Colorado.
- CSU lost $326 million for methane research; some of those projects focused on emissions from cattle, manure handling, and soil health.
- Other losses: large-scale solar and bioenergy grants that only existed because of subsidies, not free-market demand.
- Polis and Colorado Democrats blasted the cuts as “political,” but the DOE said the projects simply didn’t serve U.S. energy needs. In reality, both are likely true.
- Once again, the fight exposes the gap between ideological green schemes and the actual energy reality of what keeps America’s lights on.
My Bottom Line
I’ve said it before (and been criticized for it plenty): the so-called “green energy industry” is, in practice, a massive government grift. Our nation’s energy needs are growing exponentially, yet Colorado’s ruling class bows exclusively at the altar of solar panels and windmills. It won’t cut it. You need natural gas and nuclear in the mix if you want to come anywhere close to meeting demand.
I was pleased to see legislation this year finally classify nuclear as “renewable energy” in Colorado. That’s progress. But will both state and federal government strip away the regulatory stranglehold that makes building nuclear nearly impossible? Don’t hold your breath. The rhetoric changes faster than the red tape.
As for Trump’s cuts? They’ll be called political. Maybe they are. But let’s not kid ourselves: most of these projects exist in deep-blue states, propped up by endless subsidies. That’s the heart of the problem. Energy must be in the free market – all of it. Bring it all: wind, solar, oil, gas, nuclear, hydro. But let it compete honestly. The subsidies must subside. We cannot afford to keep pouring billions into ideological indulgences while Americans can’t afford groceries, housing, or to fix their bald tires on crumbling roads.
Take Weld County as an example. Solar fields are popping up everywhere, not because they’re money-makers in the free market, but because government subsidies make them artificially profitable. Strip away the subsidies, and those fields dry up faster than a rain barrel in August. Meanwhile, clean-burning natural gas and nuclear could be powering the state affordably and reliably, but Democrats in Denver would rather virtue-signal than embrace reality.
And the methane research at CSU? Fascinating, yes. Important, even. But should taxpayers fork over $326 million for it? No. If the science has real value, it will find private-sector support. If it can’t survive without a federal IV drip of cash, it doesn’t belong in the budget.
Billions – likely trillions – have already been thrown at “green energy.” Yet environmentalists still scream the sky is falling. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans are crushed under the weight of inflation, housing costs, food costs, gas prices, and collapsing infrastructure. The green energy grift doesn’t solve those problems – it makes them worse.
Trump understands this: government must be made smaller. Much smaller. Free markets, not bureaucrats, should pick winners and losers in the energy sector. Until then, every “green” dollar we throw away isn’t saving the planet. It’s mortgaging our future.
