As federal subsidies dry up under the Trump administration, wind and solar energy must compete on cost and reliability, experts say.
The Trump administration has taken a sharp turn from its predecessor regarding wind and solar energy, curtailing many of the loans, grants, and permitting that the Biden administration had put in place.
Without government subsidies and regulatory support, energy analysts are questioning whether these industries can stand on their own merits.
“We’ve reached the end of the hype phase, and the beginning of the reality phase,” Sam Romain, chairman of Americans for Energy Dominance, told The Epoch Times.
“Technologies that lower costs, improve reliability, and strengthen the grid will grow,” Romain said. “Those that don’t will fade.”
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump suspended new leases and permits for wind and solar on public lands and waters and raised fees for existing projects. Subsequently, his One Big Beautiful Bill Act set tighter deadlines to cut off subsidies to wind and solar energy projects, putting more than $300 billion in planned wind and solar investments at risk of cancellation.
In August 2025, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy canceled $679 million in federal funding for 12 offshore wind projects across America, stating that the administration is “prioritizing real infrastructure improvements over fantasy wind projects that cost much and offer little.”
And in December 2025, the Interior Department halted leases for five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction in the United States, citing security risks.
Calling the wind installations “expensive, unreliable [and] heavily subsidized,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum posted on X that “ONE natural gas pipeline supplies as much energy as these 5 projects COMBINED.”
Without these subsidies, many analysts say wind and solar power will struggle to survive, at least on the scale that was envisioned under the Biden administration.
“Wind and solar won’t be able to credibly compete with affordable, reliable baseload sources like gas, coal, and nuclear at the utility scale,” Sarah Montalbano, energy policy analyst at Always On Energy Research, told The Epoch Times. “Intermittent wind and solar depend on tax credits and state mandates that require their construction.”
