After Trump's subsidy cuts, solar and wind groups in California seek aid

California's leaders are asking for assistance from clean energy companies to get their projects up and running before the changes in federal subsidies made by President Donald Trump’s new tax and spending laws make them more costly and difficult to construct.

Five trade groups representing solar and wind energy companies sent a letter on Wednesday to California Governor Gavin Newsom, and to state legislative leaders, urging them to speed up environmental reviews and approvals of projects, to initiate new clean-energy procurement, and to allow more facilities to sit on agricultural land.

The groups claimed that the rollback of clean energy tax credits, and tighter rules about when a construction project is considered complete, threatened billions in investment as well as climate change goals for California.

The letter stated that "taken together, this new federal landscape creates serious risks of delays or cancellations for dozens utility-scale wind and solar projects throughout the state. This threatens jobs, reliability and progress towards California's clean power targets."

This plea comes just two weeks after Trump's signing of a Republican-passed bill that will phase out wind and solar tax credits in 2026, if no projects have started construction. Projects that start construction after 2026 must be in operation by the end of that year.

Trump also directed last week that the Treasury Department tighten rules within 45 days on who is eligible to claim incentives.

Californian climate policies, which lean Democratic, are among the most ambitious. This week, the state announced that it would sell more than two thirds of its electricity in 2023 from renewable sources and emitting zero carbon.

Newsom's Office did not respond immediately to a comment request.

Leaders from the California Energy Storage Alliance, the California Wind Energy Association, and the California Energy Industries Association signed the letter. (Reporting and editing by Nichola Adler; Leslie Adler, Leslie Adler).

(source: Reuters)