It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.
With a quote from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, American Clean Power CEO Jason Grumet solemnly set up the current state of renewables in the U.S.
He didn’t use this classic literary comparison lightly. Dickens’ framing of the years that led to the French Revolution serves as an apt prophecy to today’s energy landscape.
While addressing this year’s CLEANPOWER tradeshow in Houston, Texas, in June, Grumet quickly ran down a list of the good, the bad, and the ugly that has plagued and powered the renewables sector over the past year.
For example, Bloomberg reported that billions have been lost in clean-energy jobs and investments, even as renewables hit new records despite Trump pushback.
Another report said Trump had cratered the clean-energy manufacturing boom, while the New York Times said: Don’t look now. The clean transition is still happening.
But the ultimate good news is that, even with President Trump’s attempts to crush clean-energy progress, the U.S. has generated more power from renewables than gas for the first time, according to Grumet.
“We are witnessing a historic collision between the best market fundamentals and the worst politics one could imagine,” he said. “Now, in America, market fundamentals will always prevail. The question is: How much needless harm is done to our economy and consumers while we allow polarization to trump pragmatism? So, I want to reflect a little bit on the state of our industry as we transition away from the current tax credits. I want to talk about the shockingly irrational policy environment we are operating in and then share what ACP and our industry are doing to fight back.”
Renewables equals resilience
Renewable energy is a resilient industry, according to Grumet, and that’s not because it’s charming.
“Clean-power technologies are low cost and fast to deploy in a high growth and high demand environment,” he said. “We have grown continuously over the past decade, regardless of who’s in the White House. Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, clean power delivered over 90 percent of all new power to the grid.”
In 2025, 70 new factories were opened and there are currently 140 under construction, according to Grumet.
“Right here in Texas, wind and solar generate 37 percent of all electricity while relying on the country’s largest battery storage fleet to keep the grid operating reliably and affordably,” he said. “And despite the phase-out of tax credits, clean energy is on track to capture 80 percent of the market between now and 2030.”
Despite the positive growth, one of the more frustrating elements of the current climate is the attack the industry faces from political myopia, according to Grumet.
“Far from energy dominance, this administration is creating energy scarcity that’s accelerating energy bills and handicapping the U.S. in our race for digital dominance,” he said. “Today, over 130 utility-scale wind projects are being obstructed by the Department of Defense. With global energy disruption at an all-time high, it’s a pretty remarkable moment to be blockading 30 GW of critically needed power on private land that would create tens of thousands of high-paying jobs in manufacturing, construction, and plant operation. It is time for state leaders like Governors Abbott and Reynolds and Stitt and Armstrong to stand up and protect their workers and consumers and land donors from these irrational federal bully politics.”
ACP’s involvement
ACP is not sitting still during this constant attack on rational business growth, according to Grumet.
“In trade policy, it seems like we’re confronting an irrational proposal just about every day,” he said. “But we’re making progress.”
Grumet pointed out that, with an aggressive information effort, the industry has secured the termination of two industry trade actions that could have crippled the upstream supply chain. In addition, ACP is fighting regulatory battles by leading an industry advocacy to manage the phase-out of tax credits and navigate the complex regulatory risks addressing foreign entities of concern. In Congress, ACP is at the center of the permitting reform debate and has established technology neutrality, permit certainty, and the equal application of law as table stakes for any legislative outcome. As a result, Senate leaders have made clear there will be no permitting deal until the administration instructs the Department of Defense to follow the law and allow the wind industry to move forward. Now, in contrast to the federal government, many states are unleashing their energy potential.
“ACP is proud to be working with our regional partners to have passed legislation in Virginia and Illinois and Oklahoma and California,” he said. “We’re streamlining renewable energy permitting, accelerating the deployment of storage, and creating market opportunities across the industry. And finally, with leadership from regional partners, our industry has gone to court, and we have overturned half a dozen executive orders designed to impede clean-power deployment.”
Dealing with a new normal
Grumet fully admits this adversarial position ACP finds itself in is not ideal nor was it expected, but that doesn’t mean the organization is going to throw in the proverbial towel.
“We are ready at a moment’s notice to work with the administration to address any legitimate concerns,” he said. “But absent a spirit of partnership and substantive engagement, we’re just not going to shrink from this fight.”
Even though there are glimmers of good news, Grumet said the polling suggests a return to divided government.
“Having experienced unprecedented partisan policy whiplash over the last few years, we should welcome the return of some bipartisan ballast,” he said. “And we must respond with a policy agenda that reflects the center and not the edges of our political system.”
As a result, ACP is already working with partner trade associations, energy advocates, and members of Congress to define a more durable policy platform like that enjoyed by other mature energy technologies, according to Grumet.
“We’re also focused on policy opportunities to strengthen domestic manufacturing, to incentivize long-distance transmission, and establish some guardrails to restrain the imposition of these ill-conceived tariffs,” he said. “Be on the lookout for a suite of new policy conversations and proposals as we approach the midterm elections.”
Repairing partisan opinion
Over the past decade, renewables have caused a divide among Americans mainly due to the industry being cast in an unjust partisan light, according to Grumet.
“That’s why we are working with a host of administration allies who believe that energy dominance must include clean energy,” he said. “Under a campaign titled American Energy First, our industry is working with national security experts who understand that the current global energy insecurity requires that we exploit the full range of our nation’s domestic resources.
We’re also connecting with MAHA leaders who want their kids to grow up in communities with modern clean-energy facilities and not 60-year-old coal plants forced to run while exempt from basic public health requirements. And we’re painfully aware that the American people, that all of us, are being overwhelmed with a barrage of bad information online.”
As part of that initiative, ACP is building digital tools and influencer relationships designed to break through the echo chamber of digital misinformation, according to Grumet.
“And finally, Americans are benefiting from clean energy far more than most realize,” he said. “For the first time, our industry is launching a major campaign to speak directly to consumers.”
Sometimes the political chaos can seem overwhelming, but Grumet ended his address to CLEANPOWER with some words of reassurance.
“We are grappling together with a lot, and we all make sense of chaos and contradiction in our own different ways,” he said. “Together, we will persevere in this chaotic environment, and we’ll do it with character and humor, and with big, beautiful machines that make and store and distribute clean power to the people.”
