Trump’s Climate Vendetta: Wreck the Future He Won’t Live to See

The Esmeralda 7 solar project gets shelved.

Anthony Davis Oct 12

Let’s get something out of the way: Donald Trump will not live long enough to suffer the worst impacts of climate change. The floods, droughts, mass migrations, collapsing food systems, failing power grids—none of it will touch him. He’s 79 years old. He’ll be gone before the real damage hits. Which makes his war on renewable energy not just short-sighted, but profoundly selfish. This week, Trump’s administration ramped up its childish campaign to dismantle the country’s clean energy future, killing off what would have been one of the largest solar projects on Earth and preparing to axe billions more in green infrastructure. This isn’t policy. It’s personal vengeance dressed up as governance.

The Esmeralda 7 Solar Project in Nevada was poised to be a clean energy landmark, a sprawling operation across 185 square miles, nearly the size of Las Vegas, producing over six gigawatts of electricity, enough to power nearly two million homes. A joint venture from major players like NextEra, Leeward, Arevia, and Invenergy, it had backing, momentum, and federal support. Until now. The Bureau of Land Management abruptly pulled the plug on the project’s environmental review, effectively killing it. The agency now says the developers can start over with smaller, separate proposals. Translation: good luck rebuilding a climate mega-project under an administration openly hostile to the idea that renewable energy should exist at all.

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But this isn’t about one solar farm. The Esmeralda cancellation is just the start. The Trump administration has already cut $7.6 billion in clean energy funds this fall, on top of $3.7 billion earlier in the year. Now, according to internal memos leaked to the press, even more projects are headed for the chopping block. The documents list hundreds of clean energy initiatives marked “terminate,” including hydrogen hubs, carbon capture systems, university research, and infrastructure upgrades in both red and blue states.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright says these are just routine reviews. Don’t buy it. In public statements, he’s made it clear that projects must align with “this administration’s agenda” or they’re out. And this administration’s agenda? It’s not about innovation, affordability, or sustainability. It’s about kneecapping anything green that Biden helped build. Many of the affected projects were bipartisan in nature, meant to modernize the grid, lower costs, and create jobs. Now they’re being tossed aside because they conflict with Trump’s fossil-fueled worldview - and an oxymoron called ‘clean coal’.

Meanwhile, offshore wind is being drowned out too. The Department of Transportation just canceled $679 million in federal funding meant to prepare U.S. ports for the offshore wind industry. These 12 port projects, granted under Biden, spanned the coasts and were part of a major effort to catch up with Europe’s wind capacity. Trump’s team killed them with one stroke. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy claimed the money would be “better spent” on traditional port upgrades, but that’s laughable. This is political theater, not economic strategy. Wind is on Trump’s hit list. It always has been since he lost a case to kill a wind farm off the coast of Scotland as it ‘ruined the view’ from his ghost town golf course. He’s ranted about wind turbines for years, calling them bird-killers and causing cancer.

Congressman Jared Huffman, who represents a California district that lost funding, said the quiet part out loud: “This is sabotage. It’s a direct attack on clean energy jobs and lower electricity costs.” The damage doesn’t stop there. Just over a week ago, the administration halted construction on a wind farm off Rhode Island’s coast. Trump has already rolled back tax incentives for both wind and solar, which independent studies say will raise utility bills nationwide. If you think this stops at solar panels and offshore turbines, think again. This is about dismantling climate action, one grant, one permit, one project at a time.

From day one, Trump has been on a mission to freeze renewable energy development. His first executive order paused all new green projects on federal lands and waters. He appointed Kathleen Sgamma, an oil industry lobbyist, to run the Bureau of Land Management, which controls hundreds of millions of public acres. In July, he gave Interior Secretary Doug Burgum the final say over any new solar or wind development, effectively centralizing the power to say no. By August, Trump made his stance public and absolute: “We will not approve wind or farmer-destroying Solar,” he wrote on Truth Social. “The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!”

The stupidity, unfortunately, is just beginning. Trump’s actions aren’t just cynical - they’re destructive on a generational scale. While countries like China, Germany, and South Korea race toward renewable dominance, Trump is tying the United States to an aging, dirty, expensive energy system that enriches oil executives and impoverishes everyone else. All while pretending it’s patriotic and machismo.

He won’t be here to see Miami underwater or crops failing across the Midwest. He won’t face the blackouts or the water wars. He’ll be long gone, buried under a gold-plated headstone while the rest of us deal with the aftermath. That’s what makes this more than politics. It’s a betrayal of the future by someone who doesn’t intend to be part of it.

And then there’s the mountain of jobs that the green energy sector creates. All wiped out along with the potential for scalability and profitability. All gone, thanks to one man’s grudge.

If fully scaled, solar energy could power the entire United States many times over. Just one hour of sunlight hitting the Earth provides more energy than the entire world uses in a year. With current technology, covering less than 0.5% of U.S. land with solar panels could generate enough electricity to meet national demand. Combined with modern energy storage and smart grid infrastructure, solar isn’t just viable - it’s the most abundant and democratic energy source we have.

Every canceled project is a climate time bomb left ticking for someone else to defuse. And Trump keeps lighting the fuses, playing to the gallery, simply to ‘own the Libs’.

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