US Clean Energy: Economics Officially Overtake Politics
- 14 hours ago
- 2 min read
“We are accelerating past milestones we didn’t expect to hit until the 2030s” - for the first time, Americans are getting more of their electricity from the sun than from coal. “That’s good for people’s wallets, it’s good for their health, it’s good for the planet.”
According to Jigar Shah, former Director, U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office: "Looking at May 2021 vs. May 2026, something remarkable has happened. Coal has gone from 20 percent of US electricity to just over 12 percent. And solar has gone from 5 percent to almost 13 percent."
"The economics have officially overtaken the politics. In the United States, solar plus storage made up 91 percent of new generating capacity in Q1 2026. No new coal plants are planned despite announcements to the contrary. Solar is now the third-largest electricity source in the country, behind only gas and nuclear."
"I get that we are not supposed to believe in the energy transition anymore. So lets just call it national security. We are accelerating past milestones we didn’t expect to hit until the 2030s."
The turnaround comes even as political headwinds have shifted against renewable energy. Last summer, Congress passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which rolled back enormous swaths of former President Joe Biden’s landmark climate change legislation, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. And President Donald Trump has actively sought to hinder renewable energy development, even offering to pay at least one oil company $1 billion to stop building its offshore wind projects.
However, the money-saving economic argument is now prevailing, despite Trump's best efforts. “We’re going to just keep seeing more and more renewables brought onto the grid,” said Patrick Drupp, director of climate policy at the Sierra Club. “That’s good for people’s wallets, it’s good for their health, it’s good for the planet.”