Alternet - According to one analyst, only two groups are celebrating H.R. 1 — President Donald Trump's massive new budget law — on July 4: Republicans, and the Chinese Communist Party.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote Friday about how H.R. 1 will effectively "kneecap America’s renewable energy industry" and give China a monopoly on the renewable energy industry for decades. One of the major components of the law is the stripping of billions of dollars in subsidies and tax credits for solar, battery and wind energy. This comes at the same time China is rapidly restructuring its energy grid to include larger portions of electricity from renewable sources. Friedman wrote that Chinese President Xi Jinping likely views July 4 as "American Electricity Dependence Day."
"The Chinese simply can’t believe their luck: that at the dawn of the electricity-guzzling era of artificial intelligence, the U.S. president and his party have decided to engage in one of the greatest acts of strategic self-harm imaginable," Friedman wrote.
"They have passed a giant bill that, among other craziness, deliberately undermines America’s ability to generate electricity through renewables," he continued. "And why? Because they view those as 'liberal' energy sources, even though today they are the quickest and cheapest ways to boost our electricity grid to meet the explosion of demand from AI data centers."
Friedman also cited a study from the research firm Energy Innovation, which found that Trump's law would "cause wholesale electric power prices to increase roughly 50% by 2035," while "cumulative annual consumer energy costs will increase more than $16 billion by 2030." The law would also reportedly eliminate 830,000 estimated renewable energy jobs by the end of the decade.
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