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The set of 15 primaries, known as ‘super Tuesday’, took place yesterday with Trump victorious in 14 of them, including California and Texas. Haley meanwhile, won in Vermont alone and media reports suggested that Trump’s sole remaining Republican rival would drop out later today, without endorsing him.  

Wind industry jitters

The opinion polls, nine months ahead of the November vote, show Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden in a very tight race. 

Trump as the nominee would send jitters through the wind community. It is a technology Trump is famous for singling out for loathing. 

As expected, Trump has already lambasted wind and climate action in the current election cycle and has erroneously blamed whale deaths on wind while describing climate change a “hoax”. 

While on the campaign trail, Trump has told supporters he wants to “drill, drill, drill,” in reference to drilling for oil - something which Biden has slowed in favour of more climate-friendly policies. 

IRA in jeopardy?

Trump could take executive actions to impede implementation of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed in 2022, according to Aaron Barr, Wood Mackenzie’s global head of onshore wind research. The legislation’s tax credits form the bedrock for impetus in the US wind industry. 

But as executive, Trump could not repeal the IRA alone. 

“Republicans have vowed to repeal the IRA, the backbone of US decarbonisation efforts,” said Atin Jain, senior wind power associate at BloombergNEF. “However, in case there is a change in administration after the election, the efforts to reverse the energy transition will face significant obstacles.”

He noted the need for Republicans to control Congress, the US lawmaking body but it is unclear if they will achieve this. 

Jain added: “Overturning the whole [IRA] law would end popular tax cuts for clean energy that have disproportionately driven investments into Republican-voting districts. Based on early January data tracked by BloombergNEF, Republican-leaning 'red' states accounted for about 48% of US clean-tech investments post the IRA, not taking into account the 9% of investments where the state has not been disclosed.”