How Trump’s pro-oil moves could help hydropower
President Donald Trump has a clear favorite when it comes to renewable energy: hydropower.
While Trump has repeatedly railed against wind and solar power — once referring to wind as “garbage” — he has called hydropower one of his “all-time favorites.” And unlike wind and solar, hydropower made the cut in Trump’s definition of energy sources in his “national energy emergency” declaration.
That could mean the industry benefits from the administration’s efforts to streamline permitting and curtail environmental reviews for energy projects, experts say. Trump signed a flurry of executive orders on his first day in office to boost fossil fuel development. His sweeping “Unleashing American Energy” order directs agencies to review its regulations, policies and other actions that burden several energy sources, including hydropower.
“Hydropower is being set up to receive support for expansion and modernization while other renewables face increased uncertainty,” said Joe Bernardi, who tracks the hydropower industry for Global Energy Monitor. “Trump's approach here suggests that hydropower may benefit more than other energy generation sources often characterized as renewable.”
But it’s unclear whether Trump’s nods to hydropower will result in any direct actions to help the industry, said Jordan Kern, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. The order, he said, is “more important for what it left out, which is wind and solar, so to me, that’s just sort of signaling that they’re clearly going to go after wind and solar."
