Green energy investors finally fight back

Texas race offers test case for new approach

This column is for Callaway Climate Insights subscribers only, but it’s OK to share once in a while. Was it shared with you? Please subscribe.

(Bill Sternberg is a veteran Washington journalist and former editorial page editor of USA Today.)

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (Callaway Climate Insights) — Ever since Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, the clean energy industry has been a political punching bag in Washington.

Trump rarely misses an opportunity to denounce what he calls the “green new scam.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vows that the Pentagon won’t do any “climate change crap.” The administration has rolled back renewable energy grants and targeted an array of wind projects.

Most notably, Trump’s tax law, approved by the Republican-controlled Congress last summer, wiped out more than $600 billion in federal subsidies for electric vehicles, solar and wind power, and other green technologies.

Now, at long last, some wealthy clean tech investors have decided they are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. They are taking a new tack: hardball politics.