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Liam Denning, Columnist

Big Tech Is Green Power’s Best Defense Against the GOP

New wind and solar projects will depend on the AI industry’s hunger for electricity to secure funding as government subsidies disappear. 

Finding new backers.

Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg 

Under attack from President Donald Trump, the cause of greening America’s power grid now relies to a large degree on some of his most recent converts in Silicon Valley. This has nothing to do with politics; rather wealth, scale and urgent need are working together to advance both renewable energy and nuclear power, albeit in different ways.

The Trump tax bill working its way through Congress is a huge blow to renewables. Senate Republicans were expected to dilute the zealous anti-greenery in the House version of the bill, but the latest language out of the Senate Finance Committee, is only a little less harsh. Tax credits supporting wind and solar projects will phase down to zero by the end of 2027. That might pull forward some projects, but it will ultimately bump renewable energy costs up considerably. For example, removing the investment tax credit raises a typical solar project’s electricity price by around 40%, according to Lazard Inc. Together with regulatory efforts to boost the fortunes of coal and gas-fired electricity, this would ultimately suppress appetite for new renewables projects.