Energy

Biden’s Green Energy Darlings Had A Brutal Past Few Weeks — But It Could Have Been Worse

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The Trump administration has dealt a series of blows to wind and solar energy in recent weeks, with the Treasury Department delivering the latest strike on Friday, though some experts who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation argue that the agency stopped short of a full crackdown on Biden-era green tax credits.

While the Biden administration pushed for wind and solar technology through billions in government subsidies, loans and grants, the Trump administration has prioritized reliable and conventional electricity sources and has taken several recent actions to clampdown on federal support for the green energy technology former President Joe Biden favored. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released its guidance Friday in line with President Donald Trump’s July executive order targeting solar and wind subsidies in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), closing in on a last-minute green energy loophole slipped into the bill but failing to fulfill a promise reportedly made to congressional Republicans who wanted to terminate the subsidies, according to some energy sector experts.

“The Trump administration is finally ending the sweetheart tax deals that fueled a speculative boom in unreliable wind and solar,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, told the DCNF. “The Treasury’s guidance on wind and solar subsidies under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is a strong step toward protecting our economic prosperity and national security, while ensuring Americans have access to affordable and reliable electricity.”

Though energy sector experts said that the OBBBA contained a gaping green energy loophole and more generous phase out dates as compared to the House version of the bill, Trump reportedly told congressional Republicans that were firmly against wind and solar subsidies that executive actions would accompany the OBBBA to enhance the law and enforce green energy tax credit phase-outs. Trump then signed an executive order that directed the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Treasury Department to review wind and solar regulations and enforce the green energy tax credit phaseout, respectively.

The Treasury’s guidance tightened safe harbor rules for wind and solar subsidies under the OBBBA, which some energy experts flagged as a loophole that allowed for green energy companies to devote 5% of its project’s budget within 12 months in order to qualify for taxpayer subsidies. Now, wind and solar projects must have completed “physical work of a significant nature” by July 5, 2026, to qualify for subsidies, though some energy sector experts that spoke to the DCNF argue that this change does not crackdown on the subsidies effectively enough.

Isaac also said that “it’s outrageous that we’re still offering tax dollars to capture CO₂ at the same time the EPA is working to repeal the Endangerment Finding,” while other energy experts like Vice President for Policy at Institute for Energy Research Kenny Stein argued that there was still a “giant barn door” open for those who want government wind and solar subsidies.

The Trump administration has delivered multiple setbacks to wind and solar recently, with the DOI declaring that it will end “preferential treatment” for wind and solar on July 29 and creating another permitting roadblock for green energy on public lands on Aug. 1. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum also wrote on X in late July that wind projects “are known to kill eagles,” and that his agency will move to enforce the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act to protect the bird from any turbines. Additionally, the DOI moved to cancel a massive wind farm on Aug. 6 that Biden approved just weeks before Trump took office.

The U.S Department of Agriculture also announced Monday that it will no longer use taxpayer dollars to build solar and wind projects on American farmland.

“Millions of acres of prime farmland is left unusable so Green New Deal subsidized solar panels can be built,” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote on X. “This destruction of our farms and prime soil is taking away the futures of the next generation of farmers and the future of our country.”

Notably, green energy project cancellations have also been racking up in recent months as the Trump administration continues to shut off the taxpayer spigot to wind and solar ventures.

The IRS and the Treasury did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.