US Energy Dept. Begs For More Renewable Energy, Pleeeeese!!!

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After cutting the US wind and solar industries off at the knees all year long, the Trump administration has finally woken up to the fact that wind and solar are the only abundant, accessible domestic energy resources that can meet the nation’s surging demand for electricity ASAP, STAT, on the double, economically, safely, and at scale, too. At least, that’s what one may think upon a cursory reading of the Energy Department’s new “Speed to Power” plan. It is tailor made to vault renewable energy back to priority status in federal energy policy — or not, as the case may be.

More Renewable Energy, Pleeeeese!

Actually, “Speed to Power” is more of a plea than a plan. In a September 18 announcement, the Energy Department let everybody know that it has issued a formal Request for Information, desperately seeking any and all ideas from the private sector on how to “accelerate the speed of large-scale grid infrastructure project development for both transmission and generation.”

The Energy Department sure sounds anxious enough to try anything. In the announcement, the agency admitted that “the current rate of project development is inadequate to support the country’s rapidly expanding manufacturing needs and the reindustrialization of the U.S. economy.”

“The Speed to Power initiative will help ensure the United States has the power needed to win the global artificial intelligence (AI) race while continuing to meet growing demand for affordable, reliable and secure energy,” the Energy Department added, which is a sideways way of indicating that US President Donald Trump’s new fossil-friendly “American Energy Dominance” plan has already fallen on its face.

In fact, the pitch for Speed to Power slots neatly into the renewable energy picture. The US wind and solar industries (especially solar) have spent the better part of the early 2000’s demonstrating that they can deliver kilowatts on the megascale faster, and more economically, than any other energy resource on the market today.

Restarting the Renewable Energy Engine, Or Not

The US renewable energy track record is even more impressive considering that the nation’s rich offshore wind resources have barely been tapped as yet, having hit the doldrums all through the Obama administration and the first Trump administration, too.

Former President Joe Biden finally wrangled the offshore industry into speed mode with a near-term goal of 30 gigawatts. By the time US President Donald Trump took office, a long list of Biden-era offshore wind projects was already through the review stage and on the way to construction. In fact, some were deep into construction when Trump pulled the plug.

If the Energy Department is really that desperate to make Speed to Power happen, perhaps Energy Secretary Wright could find a tactful way to suggest that US President Donald Trump’s fossil-friendly “American Energy Dominance” needs a bit of a tweak, particularly in regards to the US offshore wind industry.

For example, one need look no farther than the Revolution Wind project, a 704-megawatt offshore wind farm located off the coast of Rhode Island. The work was 80% complete as of last August, when Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered the work to stop.

That’s peanuts compared to the 2.4-gigawatt SouthCoast Wind project in Massachusetts, which was greenlighted for construction until Burgum pulled the plug last Friday.

And, that’s the problem. Instead of collaborating with other federal agencies on significant domestic energy initiatives, the Energy Department is only seeking projects within its funding wheelhouse. The Speed to Power RFI covers “near-term investment opportunities, project readiness, load growth expectations, and infrastructure constraints that DOE can address,” the Energy Department explains (emphasis added).

The Energy Department’s authority over US energy policy is rooted in the nuclear industry of World War II, so it’s no surprise to see a focus on nuclear power in the RFI. Besides, even if Energy Secretary Wright wanted to address constraints on the offshore wind industry, first he would have to ask Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to restart the federal offshore lease program upon which the entire offshore industry depends, and stop issuing stop-work orders on projects already in the pipeline. Wright will also have to tell Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to stop re-reviewing offshore wind permits that were already reviewed and approved.

In addition, Wright will have to get Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to reverse his reversal of a federal grant program aimed at upgrading 12 seaports around the nation to serve as offshore wind industry hubs, and he will have to convince US Attorney General Pam Bondi to reverse her reversal of prior offshore wind approvals, too.

Renewable Energy And The Reliability Canard

If you’re thinking that Speed to Power will fall just as flat as American Energy Dominance, drop a note in the comment thread.  Meanwhile, in an exquisite coincidence of timing, the Energy Department issued its plea for more power generation just three days before renewable energy advocates from all over the world descend upon the US for New York Climate Week 2025.

CleanTechnica will be in and around New York all week, and we’re particularly interested to know what representatives from the global wind and solar industries make of Speed to Power, particularly in regards to another stipulation coughed up by the Energy Department in the new initiative.

In addition to seeking input on projects only within the Energy Department’s funding authority, Speed to Power relies on the same outdated “reliability” canard that shuts the door on wind and solar. In the September 18 announcement, Secretary Wright emphasized that the hunt is on for any and all “affordable, reliable and secure sources.”

“With the Speed to Power initiative, we’re leveraging the expertise of the private sector to harness all forms of energy that are affordable, reliable and secure to ensure the United States is able to win the AI race,” he repeated.

In case anyone didn’t get the message, the Energy Department cited its lopsided new grid report, in which it warned that that “blackouts could increase by 100 times by 2030 if the U.S. continues to shutter reliable power sources and fails to add additional firm capacity.”

Sure, Let’s Save All Those Coal Jobs

So, where does that leave the Energy Department? With not much, that’s for sure. The agency has fallen back on expensive, wasteful emergency measures such as pulling the mothballed Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan out of mothballs.

The Energy Department has also pulled the emergency cord to force a lumbering, antiquated coal power plant in Michigan to remain open past its scheduled retirement date. That’s not a plan, that’s a sop to the US coal industry, which is still clinging to the hope that Trump will finally make good on his promise to save coal jobs.

“Coal prices are far less volatile than those of natural gas,” the coal industry organization America’s Power notes weakly, but that won’t help. Natural gas has been pushing coal out of the US power generation picture since the early 2000’s, and it will continue pushing with or without an assist from renewable energy resources.

Last week, for example, the Ohio-based power engineering firm Babcock & Wilcox joined with the investment fund Denham Capital to announce a new partnership aimed at leveraging existing transmission infrastructure in the US and Europe to convert coal power plants to gas. “Through the partnership, substantial investments will be made to convert coal-fired power plants to cleaner natural gas solutions, which represent a crucial bridge for the clean energy transition,” the partners explained.

In terms of the renewable energy transition, that “bridge” pitch is worth debunking, but the point is that coal’s place in the power generation profile is shrinking no matter what lifeline the Trump administration tosses into the seas.

Renewable Energy Gets The Last Laugh, Eventually

Oh the irony, it burns. Trump’s own insistence on a Federal Reserve rate cut could give renewable energy investing the edge over coal and gas, too, according to some analyses. For that matter, Trump’s carefully articulated American Energy Dominance plan contains the seeds of coal’s destruction. In addition to throwing a protective blanket over the US nuclear industry, the plan includes multiple renewable energy resources, including hydropower, geothermal, and biomass along with marine energy.

All of these renewable resources face cost and timeline obstacles under the current state of technology, but none of them are going away. Neither is the wind or the sunshine, for that matter. They will all be sticking around long after Trump leaves office on January 20, 2029, as scheduled — peacefully, one hopes, this time.

Image (cropped): US Department of Energy via CleanTechnica archives.