GOP states won’t abandon cleantech if Trump wins, report predicts

Washington D.C. Correspondent
Source: Rystad Energy's Energy Scenarios Solution, August 2024 • Rystad analyzed project rollouts across the value chain in each U.S. state. Swing states are designated as those where the electorate has voted with either Democrats or Republicans in past elections.

Republican-leaning states are unlikely to abandon clean energy projects and jobs if former President Donald Trump is re-elected president of the United States this November, according to the latest analysis by Oslo-based think tank Rystad Energy.

In the months leading up to the election, former President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to terminate the “Green New Scam,” the name he has given to climate initiatives under the Biden administration. Biden’s signature climate law, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act is responsible for ushering nearly half a trillion dollars of investment into clean energy.

“If the Republican party wins the 2024 presidential election, the incoming administration will inherit the IRA and numerous pre-approved clean energy projects, making it unlikely that these initiatives would be abandoned,” Rystad wrote in its analysis.

Rystad Energy reached its conclusions after analyzing where four types of clean energy technologies are being made and installed from 2024 to 2030 across the U.S. They then broke the data down by how each state is expected to vote.

By 2030, Rystad Energy projects GOP-led states such as Oklahoma, Indiana, Florida and Texas will account for:

  • 57% of all U.S. battery cell manufacturing
  • 59% of solar cell and module production
  • 95% of hydrogen production
  • 83% of carbon capture installations.

“The red states are basically receiving the lion’s share of investments,” Lars Nitter Havro, head of Rystad Energy’s Energy Macro Research, told Cipher.

Swing states like Arizona and Georgia are equally unlikely to give up making batteries and solar energy parts or the accompanying job growth that has resulted from IRA dollars, Havro said.

If Republicans win the U.S. Senate in November and Democrats take over the U.S. House of Representatives, Rystad said chances of Republicans repealing the IRA are low. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be any adverse impacts. Competing priorities among the two political parties may lead to legislative gridlock, affecting projects and driving states to craft a patchwork of their own policies that may protect either their clean energy or fossil fuel interests.

Rystad Energy’s analysis of the U.S. election reflects the global importance of the outcome: To what degree the U.S. keeps moving full steam ahead on the energy transition is likely to affect the pace in other countries.