With Trump pivot back to pro-oil and gas policies, one renewable energy finds favor

As promised, President Donald Trump began reversing the country’s energy policies his first day in office with a spate of orders largely favoring oil, gas and coal. “Geothermal is heating up and the Trump administration is going to empower the industry over the next four years to achieve its potential,” said Bryant Jones, executive director of the geothermal trade association, Geothermal Rising. Wright said at his confirmation hearing that he’s excited about geothermal as an “an enormous, abundant energy resource below everyone’s feet.” Wright’s appointment is a clear signal that this administration will support geothermal, said Terra Rogers, a program director who focuses on the technology at the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force. The United States is a world leader in electricity made from geothermal energy, but it still accounts for less than half a percent of the nation’s total large-scale generation, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Offshore wind is one of the most expensive sources of new power generation, but onshore wind is cheaper than new natural gas plants, according to estimates from the Energy Information Administration.