Washington, July 25 (IANS) US President Donald Trump renewed his criticism of wind energy, saying his administration would seek to prevent the approval of new wind farms while promoting nuclear power, coal, natural gas and other forms of what he called reliable energy.
Speaking during a White House event highlighting advances in civilian nuclear technology, Trump said wind energy remained expensive, unreliable and heavily dependent on government support.
“We have not approved anything having to do with windmills,” Trump said in response to a question about whether the federal government continued to support new wind projects.
“They are horrible. They are unsightly. They ruin housing values of people if you’re looking at a windmill or hearing a windmill because they’re noisy.”
Trump also repeated long-standing claims that wind turbines harm bird populations.
“They kill all the birds. They kill all the eagles.”
He contrasted penalties for harming protected birds with what he described as the impact of wind farms.
“You shoot an eagle, you go to jail for two years. If you kill an eagle with a windmill, you don’t go to jail.”
The President argued that wind was among the most expensive forms of electricity generation and criticised the dependence of the industry on Chinese manufacturing.
“They’re all made in China. But China has very few windmills.”
“For the most part, China actually uses coal, oil and gas. They use nuclear, by the way.”
Calling wind energy “inconsistent,” Trump said his administration intended to halt further expansion of wind projects.
“Unless there’s a trick reason, we will have hopefully no wind farms approved.”
He pointed to Palm Springs, California, as an example of what he called the visual impact of ageing wind farms.
“As you enter beautiful Palm Springs, California, it looks like a junkyard.”
Trump said disposing of turbine blades also posed environmental challenges, although he added, “I don’t know if that’s true or not.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum backed the President’s position, arguing that wind energy had survived primarily because of government subsidies.
“President Trump has wisely understood that wind was unreliable, intermittent, depending on the weather.”
He said the administration was instead focusing on what it described as dependable, around-the-clock electricity generation.
“President Trump shifting the policy towards energy dominance, which is reliable, affordable, seven by 24 energy that’s not dependent on the weather.”
Burgum said the administration’s energy strategy included nuclear power, hydropower, geothermal energy, oil, natural gas and coal.
“Nuclear is a key part of that with these amazing entrepreneurs.”
He also defended coal as an essential part of the US electricity system.
“Coal was the number one electric producer in the world 125 years ago and it was for the last 125 years in a row and it will be again this year.”
Burgum said the administration had kept 35 gigawatts of coal-fired generation operating during the past year, arguing that doing so had strengthened grid reliability during periods of extreme winter weather.
Trump similarly praised coal, calling it “clean, beautiful coal” and saying advances in technology had improved its environmental performance.
The President used the event to contrast renewable energy with his administration’s broader push for expanded domestic energy production, including nuclear power, fossil fuels and emerging advanced reactor technologies. The administration has argued that rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence, manufacturing and data centres requires reliable “baseload” generation that is not dependent on weather conditions.
–IANS
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