News | Headlines


Trump administration attacks climate measures


USA Climate control


US president Donald Trump has since his inauguration quickly transformed the USA’s approach to the environment, withholding funds and stretching the limits of presidential power. In the past several weeks he has fired thousands of employees at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department, the Department of Energy, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the government’s primary climate science agency. The beginnings of some legal opposition lie in the statement by one federal judge, on 27 February, that directives leading to mass firings were illegal.


And in a move that could have far-reaching implications for government efforts to regulate industry, Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the EPA, is reported to have recommended that the agency reverse its 2009 finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health and welfare. That would eliminate the legal basis for the government’s climate laws, such as limits on pollution from automobiles and power plants.


“We’re talking about undoing 50 years of environmental regulation and accelerating the extinction crisis and risking the health of the American people,” said Ben Jealous, the executive director of the Sierra Club. “There’s so much shocking news every day. People are struggling to process all of it.”


Widespread effects


As described by commentators working for the New York Times, the Trump administration’s moves have unfolded simultaneously across government, affecting federal, state and local agencies and hitting government-funded projects in Africa, Antarctica and around the world. On Inauguration day, Mr Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement.


He has frozen funds appropriated by Congress for clean energy projects, taking particular aim at wind energy, and stopped approvals for wind farms on public land and in federal waters, and has threatened to block projects on private land.


With actions that have ‘stretched the limits of presidential power’, Mr Trump has rolled back regulations aimed at limiting pollution and given a major boost to the fossil fuel industry. And he is abandoning efforts to reduce global warming, even as the world has reached record temperature levels that scientists say is driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels. To achieve such a wholesale overhaul in such a short time, the Trump administration has reneged on federal grants, fired workers en masse and attacked longstanding environmental regulations. He has dismantled programmes aimed at helping polluted communities and scrubbed references to climate change from numerous federal websites.


He has initiated an assault on regulations designed to curb pollution, and at the same time declared an energy emergency, giving himself the authority to fast track the construction of oil and gas projects. The United States is producing more oil than any other nation, and is also the world’s biggest exporter of natural gas. The president has repeatedly mocked climate change, criticised regulations and said that more drilling would bring down energy bills.


Electric vehicles have now lost much of the federal support they gained during the Biden administration. Mr Trump has directed Congress to eliminate federal subsidies for EVs. Attempts to blunt the Inflation Reduction Act are already delaying projects. The EPA has said it would try to claw back about $20 billion that was awarded to eight organisations under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to help


reduce greenhouse gas emissions in low-income communities. The effective dissolution of the United States Agency for International Development has led to the immediate termination of long-running projects in the developing world aimed at helping vulnerable countries adapt to climate change.


Legal implications


In several cases, the administration’s actions have reputedly flouted the law, with agencies defying court orders, freezing funds in legally binding contracts and reinterpreting regulations to suit their aims.


Several of the administration’s actions are already facing legal challenges, but thousands of federal jobs that are eliminated now may be hard to restore. Clean energy projects that were relying on federal funding may not proceed without the expected investments. A sudden stop to scientific work could create gaps in data collection that are impossible to fill. And environmental regulations that are stripped away could be difficult to revive. After Mr Trump ordered federal agencies to pause billions of dollars in climate and energy grants that were authorised by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to let the money flow again.


In early February, one of those judges, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Rhode Island federal court, said the White House was defying his order by withholding funds. Some funds have begun moving, but many remain stalled. John Podesta, a senior climate adviser in the Biden administration, called many of the Trump administration actions illegal. “We followed the law, and they’re breaking the law,” Mr. Podesta said. “It remains to be seen whether they’ll be allowed to get away with it.”


RWE and Norges Bank join forces for large wind projects Europe Wind energy


expected by Q3 2025.


RWE has signed an agreement with Norges Bank Investment Management to partner the Nordseecluster and Thor offshore wind projects currently under construction. NBIM will acquire a 49% stake in both projects, but RWE will continue to lead construction and operations throughout the lifecycle of these offshore wind farms. The agreed purchase price is approximately €1.4 billion as of closing, which is subject to customary approvals and


4 | April 2025 | www.modernpowersystems.com


The Nordseecluster, located 50 km north of the island of Juist, is being built in two phases: for the first phase, the 660 MW Nordseecluster A, full commissioning is planned for 2027. For the second phase, the 900 MW Nordseecluster B, full commissioning is scheduled for 2029. The 1080 MW Thor wind farm is Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm to date and is located 22 km off the west coast of Jutland. Full commissioning is planned for 2027.


The two projects have already secured long-term contracted revenues that provide stable cash flows and reduce risk to the projects.


RWE currently operates 19 offshore wind farms. In addition to Nordseecluster and Thor, RWE is building the Sofia offshore wind farm off the coast of England, and OranjeWind off the coast of the Netherlands. RWE reports that construction is progressing according to plan.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47