Players in the renewable energy sector are pushing back against the disaster scenario where the Trump administration turns its back on the development of the sector. The electricity needs of the United States, according to them, will overcome the electoral rhetoric of the president-elect.
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“This is not the main hobby horse of the Trump administration,” says Patrick Decostre, CEO of Boralex, when The Press questions him about the planned abandonment of theInflation Reduction Act (IRA), a program into which the Biden administration has injected billions of dollars to stimulate the renewable energy sector.
“He has other priorities, other fish to fry,” he said. We are no longer in the same situation as before 2020 when the development of the industry depended in part on government aid. Today, what is driving development is the increasing need for electricity. »
A demand which could result in a 15% increase in demand in just five years, according to a study that the Wood MacKenzie firm published last week. Energy-intensive, the growth of artificial intelligence is expected to lead to an increase in electricity demand from data centers of between 10 and 20% annually until 2030.
PHOTO MASON TRINCA, ARCHIVES THE NEW YORK TIMES
Solar farm near Waco, Texas
The Boralex manager therefore believes that the conclusions of an analysis published Thursday by the Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab at Johns Hopkins University remain unlikely. This argues that abandoning the IRA would be costly to the American economy: “The damage caused to the United States would take the form of loss of factories, jobs, tax revenue and up to 50 billion dollars in export losses. »
The CEO of Innergex, Michel Letellier, dismisses the disaster scenario evoking the abandonment of the IRA. The law had the effect, he said, of stimulating industry and creating thousands of jobs.
“I don’t think we’re going to cut that without reason,” continues Mr. Letellier. He recalls that several Republican states are among the main beneficiaries of the emergence of the industry, citing the example of Texas.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Michel Letellier, PDG d’Innergex
The clean energy sector has in fact created 142,000 jobs in 2023, or 56% of new jobs in the energy industry, according to the most recent figures from the Department of Energy.
I would say that the president-elect is more pro-hydrocarbons than anti-renewable energies.
Michel Letellier, PDG d’Innergex
“Will there be tariffs imposed on Chinese solar panels, for example? There’s a good chance,” he says. These protectionist measures would be less sectoral in nature than an initiative to counter the presence of Chinese products on the American market.
Patrick Decostre reminds us that in the industry, we cannot summarize the development of renewable or fossil energies according to the party in power. Solar and wind energy saw appreciable growth during Donald Trump’s first presidency, he recalls.
“And when did shale gas production increase the most in the United States? This was during the period when Barack Obama was in power. This is not a criticism, it is a fact,” he concludes.
