[Global Times reporter, Chen Zishuai, Global Times special correspondent, Zhen Xiang] According to the Associated Press, the US Department of Transportation cut $679 million in federal funding for 12 offshore wind projects on Friday, in the latest blow to the US offshore wind industry by the Trump administration. The department said the cancelled funds will be redeployed and may be used to upgrade US ports and other infrastructure. Several wind power projects in the United States have been suspended for several months. Experts warn that these clean energy sources are crucial to combating climate change, which will trigger changes in the US energy structure and weaken the competitiveness of the United States in the clean energy field. It will affect related industries such as shipping and steel. It may also hinder the development of industries such as artificial intelligence and data centers due to insufficient power supply.

Wind power is a major source of electricity.

On August 22, a U.S. federal government agency asked Denmark's Worsch Energy Company to immediately stop all construction activities for a large-scale offshore wind power project in the United States, citing the need to assess the project's impact on U.S. national security and the ocean. The project is located in the waters near Rhode Island, with a total investment of approximately US $1.5 billion. It is planned to be put into operation by the end of 2026 and is expected to supply electricity to approximately 350,000 households. According to Reuters, the construction progress of the project has reached 80%. On August 6, the Trump administration announced the cancellation of the "Lava Ridge" wind power project approved at the end of Biden's term, saying it had "significant legal flaws" and violated multiple statutory review procedures. In April this year, Statoil's large-scale wind power project in New York State was temporarily suspended by the U.S. government.

The New York Times reported that Trump has been an open opponent of wind power for many years. In January this year, on his first day in office, he issued a decree suspending federal government approval of new offshore wind power projects. According to public reports, Trump himself advocates promoting the United States to return to an energy policy based on the development of fossil fuels. The Associated Press said Trump has vowed to restore the United States '"energy dominance" in the global market and is therefore pushing the United States to rely more on fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, which emit greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

According to Reuters, between January and July this year, the average share of fossil fuel power generation in the total power supply of public utilities in the United States was 56%, while the share of clean energy generation in the same period including wind, photovoltaic and so on was 44%. according to the New York Times published data, wind power currently accounts for more than 10% of the national power supply in the United States, and in Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas, wind power has become the main local power source.

Energy Structure or Changes

According to the New York Times, the Biden administration has sought to support the emerging offshore wind industry as part of its strategy to tackle climate change and set a target in 2021 to reach 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind power capacity by 2030 to meet the electricity needs of about 10 million households. However, in the years that followed, many of the planned offshore wind projects stalled due to delays in the supply chain and local opposition. This year, after Trump took office, more projects were forced to be suspended due to the federal government¡¯s hostility to the wind industry and tariff uncertainty, and some of the wind companies announced that investment in the United States would be suspended in the foreseeable future.

According to experts, the U.S. withdrawal from the clean energy sector could not only lead to rising consumer costs and slowing the pace of innovation, but would ultimately weaken its competitiveness in key industries.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has been committed to increasing the production and export of fossil fuels such as liquefied natural gas, and driving the development of nuclear energy to expand energy supply, according to the report, however, Jonathan Elkind, senior researcher at the University of Columbia¡¯s Center for Global Energy Policy, believes that if no renewable energy is developed, Trump calls the effort to unlock the U.S. energy potential an incomplete future, ¡°which will be a rapidly changing world of energy technology, and the key is what role the U.S. will fight for itself ¨C the role of innovators, market creators, market leaders, solution providers, or the role of the backward?¡±

Energy security experts warned that the reduction in U.S. energy structural diversity would have a broad impact. A report released in July by the U.S. Energy Security Leaders Council and Energy Security Thinking Group SAFE said that a diversified domestic energy industry would reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil and other energy sources. The report believes that ¡°transition to new technologies¡± is ¡°critical¡± for national security because ¡°dependence on volatile and controlled oil markets will limit U.S. foreign policy formulation.¡± The report noted that, unlike fossil fuels, renewable energy does not require fuel input and is therefore less affected by price fluctuations.

Impacting the price of living electricity, affecting key industries such as AI

In addition to affecting the energy landscape of the United States, "The Hill" believes that the wind power crisis will also endanger the competitiveness of the United States in various fields. Wayne Gray, a professor of economics at Clark University in the United States, said that due to a series of related policies of the Trump administration, the motivation of American companies to develop new clean energy products has weakened. Elkind said that the cancellation of offshore wind power projects will also affect other key industries such as shipping and steel.

At the same time, rising electricity prices will also affect consumers 'lives. The Capitol Hill said that power consumption is expected to soar sharply and hit a record high in the next few years. According to the Clean Energy Association of the United States, U.S. electricity demand is expected to grow by 35% to 50% by 2040.

According to reports, U.S. average electricity prices rose by 5.5% over the same period last year at the end of July. One reason is the expansion of energy-intensive industries such as data centers, artificial intelligence, and the Trump administration has invested a lot of money in these industries. Senior Vice President of Energy Security Thinking Group SAFE, Evey Ash, said: ¡°We predict electricity demand will grow, and the only viable solution at the moment is to develop renewable energies such as wind and solar, which are deploying fast and are already waiting for connectivity.¡±

A group of senators wrote in a joint letter: ¡°At a time of rising energy demand, your policies have crushed America¡¯s lowest-cost and fastest-deployed energy sources ¨C solar and wind energy ¨C by raising costs, setting hard-to-pass approval barriers and injecting uncertainty into the markets, and Rachel Fox, head of the American Petroleum Society, has a different view.

Despite this policy, there are still some U.S. companies that have increased their investments in emerging renewable energy markets. For example, after the U.S. government abolished the electric vehicle tax credit, Ford plans to invest $2 billion in developing more affordable medium-sized electric vehicles. However, Evey Ash worries that even if the private sector continues to invest in clean energy technologies, if power supply does not meet demand, AI, electric vehicles and other industries will still face obstacles and the real issue is not how we meet current power needs, but how we meet future energy needs.¡±

Elkind added that reducing the importance of renewable energy will make it difficult for U.S. super-scale companies (such as tech giants) to develop artificial intelligence and other data centers locally, will make it difficult to avoid rising household electricity costs, and will make it difficult to develop emerging manufacturing across the U.S.

Liang Huaixin, a researcher at the National Institute of Security and Governance at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times reporter that in the context of the continuous development of new technologies such as AI, large-scale intelligent computing and data storage need to be based on massive power supply, but The U.S. government's suppression of green wind power will have an impact on the overall power supply in the United States, and then affect the development of AI and other related industries.