During President Donald Trump’s first week in office, he signed 37 executive orders—“Unleashing Clean Energy” among them. Clauses include the elimination of the “electric vehicle (EV) mandate,” as well as the freezing of $14 billion in funds designated to the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which was “the single largest investment in climate and energy in American history,” according to the Department of Energy. Many feel that this order will undo much of the Biden administration’s efforts to develop the clean energy sector.
On April 19, the Harvard University Clean Energy Group hosted its “Amped and Wired” Summit, bringing together students, policymakers, investors, and clean energy professionals into conversation about the future of clean energy, especially in the wake of these policy changes.
In an interview with the Independent, Elson Bankoff ’27, co-president of HUCEG, explained her journey in climate and sustainability. “I came to college very concerned about the solution of [climate change and sustainability]. How do you actually, pragmatically go about doing things?… How do you do it? How do you make it financially lucrative? How do you make it interesting?” Bankoff asked.
Bankoff has dedicated the past few years to answering these questions, traveling around the country to conservative rural areas to research climate policy and demonstrate the importance and efficiency of clean energy for all Americans. “I actually went around the country this summer. I want to prove that clean energy is patriotic,” she said.
“I was in eastern Oregon, where there are all these power outages,” she continued. “And they’re designing microgrids, and also are huge conservatives. It doesn’t really matter past a certain point, because [clean energy] is just the right thing. It’s just the future, and it’s correct. Doing that was interesting because it decoupled [climate and environment] from a political outcome.”
She attributed America’s resistance to clean energy solutions to the partisan split: “I don’t think [Americans] like to be told what to do, especially when it’s a paradigm of something that’s told to be political,” she said. “Buying a car is not political until you attach a value system to it and tell someone that they’re a bad person because they won’t buy an electric vehicle.”
In response to these partisan concerns, she offered an alternative perspective on clean energy: “Every time you’re building infrastructure to decarbonize, you’re also building resilience for communities who are getting ravaged in hurricanes and tornadoes and such.”
Bankoff’s perspective, personal research, and work illustrate the real-world stakes of clean energy endeavors, especially as federal priorities shift under Trump’s recent executive orders. These discussions and changing policies framed much of the conversation at HUCEG’s summit.
At the summit, HUCEG hosted former Biden administration policymakers, including former Chief Economist Dr. Heather Boushey; Deputy for Clean Energy Innovation Kristina Costa; former Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh; as well as former Senior Advisor to the President, Mike Donilon. The panelists emphasized the inextricable links between clean energy, job creation, and national security.
Efficient energy “is not endowed by destiny,” Singh said, pointing towards the importance of the U.S.’s investment in the future of clean energy. Dr. Boushey agreed on the importance of clean and affordable energy from a global competitive economic standpoint. The panelists explained the inevitability of clean energy as a growing sector of the global economy.
For centuries, one of the U.S.’s major strengths has been in oil and gas production. Rather than remaining stuck in the ways of the past and allowing other global powers to capture products and technologies from the private sector, the panelists encouraged a view of clean energy as a possibility for building a new basis for our economy. They emphasized the importance of focusing on long-term economic growth and sustainability. They all echoed the sentiment put forward by Donilon, that investing in new clean energy infrastructure, such as semiconductors, is investing in the country.
Despite this collective vision, the path forward for clean energy has become increasingly uncertain due to Trump’s executive orders, which risk undermining the infrastructure and innovation crucial to maintaining the nation’s position in the clean energy sector.
In an interview with the Independent, Costa expanded on the importance of IRA provisions and the implications of Trump’s executive orders targeting state policy on climate change. “I think that it is essentially an anti-constitutional measure on the part of the administration,” she said. “A bunch of states are going to have to waste a lot of time and resources in litigation with the federal government if they actually attempt to take action on the basis of the order against state policy.”
Additionally, Costa explained that individual states simply can’t maintain energy efficiency without the help of federal funding. She highlighted the stark disparity in state energy staffing, noting that California employs hundreds, while Alabama has just two. “The lack of state capacity to execute programs that are devolved by law from the federal government is a big constraint on health care, on education, as well as on energy and climate policy,” Costa said.
Costa’s concerns about the ramifications of the order’s disruption of state policy and climate initiatives, particularly those funded by the IRA, have begun to materialize in court. The Trump administration is already facing backlash: on April 15, federal judge Mary McElroy ordered the release of billions of dollars in funding for climate infrastructure that had been unlawfully frozen by the administration.
Republican congressmen, led by Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), have begun backing the preservation of the IRA. Almost 80% of clean energy infrastructure and funding has gone toward Republican congressional districts, funding projects such as the Randolph, N.C. EV battery factory and Nevada Solar for All.
NSFA was awarded $156 million through the IRA to expand solar infrastructure in the state, “[enabling] low-income and disadvantaged communities in Nevada to deploy and benefit from solar energy by providing financial and technical assistance, transforming the Nevada solar market into a vibrant and self-sustaining industry,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Before the funding freeze, the latter was projected to lower energy costs by at least 20% for thousands of low-income households in Nevada.
The “Unleashing Clean Energy” executive order will not only reverse the efforts to lower energy costs, but will also cause the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs associated with these clean energy infrastructure projects. “If [the Trump administration] is determined to move forward with this, I expect states will litigate, and they’re gonna have a very strong case,” Costa said.
The panelists mentioned that the ramifications of the “Unleashing Clean Energy Order” stand in contrast with the Trump administration’s stated goal to “solidify the United States as a global energy leader long into the future.” Experts agree that clean energy is an inevitable part of the future of America and the world. If the U.S. hopes to keep this position, investment in clean energy will become increasingly unavoidable; to repeat the words of Singh, it is not “endowed by destiny.”
The panelists expressed optimism about the future of clean energy despite any current setbacks of Trump’s executive orders. Donilon explained that built-in protections and Republican self-interest will encourage the safeguarding of the billions of dollars of investment in the IRA, further backed by the macroeconomic and national security incentives explained by Singh.
Bankoff echoed this optimism: “I think all of this stuff is inevitable. I think we’re just being a little silly right now and shooting ourselves in the foot in a lot of ways.”
“I’m optimistic about the fact that energy, for the first time, is a technology. So the learning curve is just always getting better. The prices are always dropping. That’s just gonna keep happening,” she said.
Mia Wilcox ’28 (mwilcox@college.harvard.edu) is staying informed on the changes in climate policy under the new administration.