Some Democrats are promising to push for more clean energy to help tackle rising energy costs when they take control of Congress in January, though President Donald Trump says he will use his veto power aggressively.
With new majorities in the House and Senate after last week’s midterms, Democrats can set an agenda boosting clean energy and addressing climate change. While those are traditionally core priorities of the party, climate was not a central topic in this election cycle.
Democrats can begin investigations and hold hearings into climate policy rollbacks and elimination of green energy grants by the Republican administration, potentially trying to undo some changes and restore renewable energy incentives.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said Trump’s clean energy attacks drove up prices for taxpayers. He said Democrats will “work every angle to lower consumers’ energy costs, and we will demand accountability for the massive corruption wrought by Trump’s fossil-fuel donors.”
American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet said everybody who is trying to build clean energy “feels bolstered.”
Enacting major changes would require Republican support because Democrats will lack the numbers to override presidential vetoes. Even then, lower energy bills are not guaranteed because prices also depend on fuel costs, demand and the expense of maintaining the electric grid.
“The wins give Democrats more leverage over spending and more political power to advance a coherent agenda; the question is whether they’ll use that power effectively,” said Lisa Sachs, director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment. “The vote was for affordability and opportunity. Democrats now need to be clear about which policies deliver them.”
Trump holds veto power but thinks he and Democrats can deal
Trump said after Tuesday’s election that Democrats will send over “things that are insane” and he will veto them, speaking generally about legislation. But in the comments to Fox News, he predicted that “after a couple of months of vetoes,” he and Democrats will find ways to work together.
The White House said in a statement Wednesday that Trump is “committed to unleashing reliable, affordable, and secure energy sources to lower prices, strengthen our grid, and protect our national security, and is willing to work with anyone to accomplish this.”
Trump promised to lower energy prices. Instead, his war with Iran and other policies increased the price of gasoline, diesel and electricity. At the same time, the administration canceled many clean energy projects and grants and slowed clean energy permitting.
Trump particularly dislikes offshore wind. Developer Orsted said Thursday that Revolution Wind, a large wind farm in federal waters off Rhode Island, has started operating commercially.
Will the president change his tune on green energy? That’s doubtful, said former Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., co-chair of the government relations practice at ArentFox Schiff.
“He is likely to keep pushing his energy issues, and I think he will be forced to give some room for a new Congress to recreate a different strategy that will add clean energy,” Dorgan said in an email.
Trump promotes expanding production of oil, natural gas and coal, which cause climate change, because he argues that would give the U.S. the lowest-cost electricity. Mike Sommers, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s top lobbying group, said that as voters have changed the balance of political power in Washington, “the affordability message is unmistakable.”
Sommers said in a statement there is a real opportunity for bipartisan cooperation to reduce costs and strengthen the economy, starting with an energy permitting reform proposal announced in September. The Senate is expected to hold a procedural vote Monday on the legislation, which is aimed at shortening the timeline to get big energy projects started.
Ife Kilimanjaro, executive director of the U.S. Climate Action Network, said Democrats should reject that proposal and use their stronger position to pass legislation that actually builds out much-needed clean energy.
Reversing Trump’s anti-climate policies
The administration has reshaped the Environmental Protection Agency, reversing pollution limits as it promotes fossil fuels.
Clear Street energy transition analyst Tim Moore said he expects Democrats to investigate the climate and environmental rollbacks, in an effort to block some from taking effect. Democrats could also try amending the Clean Air Act to cut carbon pollution and push back against EPA budget cuts, he added.
READ MORE: Outdated power grids a major hurdle in renewable energy transition
Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., said he is cautiously optimistic some Republicans will now seek to differentiate themselves from Trump and back pro-environmental policies. But without Republican support, Democrats’ more ambitious bills will largely lay out their agenda for 2028, he added.
Climate is not necessarily at the top of Democrats’ list of priorities. They are targeting healthcare access, trade tariffs and the Iran war.
Rep. Frank Pallone, the New Jersey Democrat who is expected to become chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the party should focus on healthcare, affordability, consumer and environmental protections, clean energy and regulating Big Tech.
A potential stalemate seen on clean energy and climate policy
David Victor, a professor of innovation and public policy at the University of California, San Diego, largely expects a stalemate at the federal level on climate and energy policy because of the divided government. He said agreement could come on some bipartisan measures such as a permitting overhaul.
Victor thinks Democratic-led investigations and hearings will center on corruption and other topics that may only touch on energy and climate. Like Casten, Victor said many of the Democratic bills likely will not become law, but will outline what Democrats could accomplish if they win the White House in 2028.
“The Democrats are going to be drafting things that the administration’s not going to like. They don’t have the votes to override a veto, and on top of it, the administration is going to be in turmoil because of its own electoral failures and because of all the investigations,” Victor said. “This seems to me, at the federal level, largely a recipe for kind of intense chaos over the next two years.”
One of the biggest wild cards is the behavior of the administration, which could use executive power to double down on rollbacks of climate and environmental rules, he said.
States could advance clean energy without waiting for Congress
Democrats scored victories in races for governor in states long controlled by Republicans, including Texas and Georgia.
Leah Stokes, a political scientist at the UC Santa Barbara, said there could be a lot of state action on climate next year because of those wins. That is where climate leadership has traditionally come from, she noted. At the federal level, Stokes is optimistic about extending clean energy tax credits since some Republicans support that.
Jay Inslee, a former Democratic governor and congressman from Washington, also expects growing momentum for clean energy in states that elected Democratic governors, particularly in states where they also won legislative majorities.
“This is a really powerful instrument for the United States to join the rest of the world and get back in a leadership position, even if we still have a climate denier that might exercise a veto on some things that we want to do federally,” Inslee said. “So I hope people will pay attention to the big progress we’re going to make on a state-level basis.”
Associated Press writers Alexa St. John and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
