The Trump energy policy is built on four planks: increased domestic production, “streamlined” permitting, “energy independence,” and promoting economic growth. The concrete implications of this project are becoming clear as subsidies for renewable energy and electric vehicles are rolled back at the same time as Trump intervenes to keep coal power stations open. Some renewables advocates have tried to find a positive in the easier permitting process that could, potentially, make it easier to build a solar farm, but the demand that energy projects must promote economic growth points to the center of the problem: renewables will never be as profitable as fossil fuels and never contribute as much to economic growth. And this points to the basic problem of trying to solve the climate crisis under the capitalist system: a system that demands endless economic growth will always prioritize the most profitable options.
While mineral rights below the soil can be bought and sold, nobody owns wind or sunshine. By giving us access to these free sources, renewable energy cuts off the biggest single stream of profit in the whole of capitalism – digging up, processing, and selling the fuels that power the rest of the system. All of these need a lot of labor and, hence, offer great profits to corporations and investors. In this sense, the Trump administration is right: fossil fuels are the better choice for economic growth. But they are the very worst choice for the future of humanity.
When capitalism demands endless economic growth, it means that it demands endless profits to feed back into itself to keep the system going. We all suffer from this endless pressure in our exhausting and underpaid jobs. Renewable energy could be the foundation of a system that will liberate us all from this endless pressure and put human need at the center of our lives instead of profit.
