"Don’t Freak Out About The Future Of Clean Energy Under Trump"

"As the country awoke a week ago to the news of an impending Donald Trump presidency, shares in wind and solar energy companies quickly plummeted. That makes sense: Trump has promised to revive the faltering coal industry and overturn many of the climate and energy priorities established by the Obama administration, from the Clean Power Plan to the Paris climate agreement.

But while all of this may look like bad news for renewables, some experts are arguing that the arrival of the new administration hardly spells a death knell for the industry. So far, they note, the inexorable march of wind and solar has largely been driven by both private-sector forces and the policies of individual states, more so than federal influence — and it’s unlikely to be easily halted.

To be clear, “the Trump administration has very few scenarios in which it’s good for the renewables industry,” said Christopher Knittel, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But he added that not all possible outcomes are “terrible,” either. For one thing, “a lot of the transition to renewables is coming because of state-level policy, and those are likely to still be there [in the Trump era],” he pointed out."

Chelsea Harvey reports for the Washington Post November 16, 2016.

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"Global Green Energy Growth Seen Weathering Trump Storm, For Now" (Reuters)