The opinions expressed here by Trellis expert contributors are their own, not those of Trellis.
President Donald Trump’s big tax and spending bill, along with a series of executive actions targeting climate and clean energy programs, are disrupting clean energy manufacturing, supply chains and deployment that had been surging this decade.
Notably, these actions include curtailing tax credits that had driven hundreds of billions of private dollars into clean technologies, making it more difficult to build new energy projects and stopping nearly completed projects in their tracks. These steps actually run directly counter to many of the Trump administration’s own economic and energy goals.
Instead of reducing electricity prices, the bill is projected to increase them by making the quickest-to-build and most affordable new power sources more expensive at a time of rising electricity demand. Instead of restoring America’s manufacturing base and supply chains, the slow deployment will undermine private investment into new clean tech factories planned across the country and their supply chains. And instead of positioning the U.S. to better compete in global industries, the bill effectively cedes key 21st century technologies such as batteries, electric vehicles and energy infrastructure to China.
While these issues have become unfortunate fodder in the culture wars, they were always economic. You can see that in the effort major businesses from across the U.S. economy made throughout 2025, as they pressed Congress to maintain clean energy incentives. And it’s why, amid rising energy prices and economic change, businesses should continue to advocate for clean energy policy that helps to meet energy demand and sustainably grow the economy. In this difficult political environment, climate and clean energy policy must focus on building up U.S. industry and innovation by advancing affordable, reliable, homegrown clean power.
For sustainability professionals, this is an opportunity to better align key corporate functions with policy priorities and help guide your company’s support through the rest of this Congress. Here are some key policy areas where companies should advocate.
Extend and simplify tax credits
Trump’s big bill takes sharp aim at wind and solar power, rapidly phasing out tax credits for these energy sources if they don’t start construction by next summer or aren’t up and running by the end of 2027. At the same time, the administration has imposed unreasonable restrictions on many wind and solar projects and changed qualification rules, making it harder for projects to get started in time to claim what remains of the tax credits.
These actions threaten to dramatically slow down deployment of wind and solar power — the most affordable and quickest-to-build energy sources — at a time when the nation needs all the energy it can get as quickly as possible to affordably meet surging demand.
Businesses should call on Congress to provide greater stability and a longer runway for wind and solar power. We need that affordable power to meet the increasing energy demand for data centers, artificial intelligence and new manufacturing facilities. Restoring the incentives will also support new manufacturi
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