GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley Defends Wind Energy After Trump Calls It ‘Junk'
President Donald Trump is ranting about wind power again, and a top Republican lawmaker is pushing back.
'Windmills, and the rest of this 'JUNK,' are the most expensive and inefficient energy in the world, is destroying the beauty of the environment, and is 10 times more costly than any other energy,' Trump posted on Truth Social. He added that renewables are mostly made in China. 'It is time to break away, finally, from this craziness!!!' he wrote.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) quickly said that wind energy is a key energy source in his state — and cheap. 'Iowans get 60% of their electricity frm wind energy It's an important tool for America's energy independence &2 keep Iowans' utility bills low,' he posted on X.
Grassley, who is even older than Trump, has been a champion of wind energy since he pushed legislation incentivizing wind energy in 1993.
As Senate Judiciary Chair, Grassley plays a key role in advancing Trump's agenda in Congress. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber.
Grassley also pushed back on Trump in April when the president called windmills 'stupid' at a rally in Michigan. 'I like to tell him, when he talks about wind energy killing birds, there are more birds that fly into the glass towers in Washington, D.C., including his, that kill more birds than wind energy does,' Grassley told Iowa station KCCI.
Despite Trump's claims that windmills and other renewable energy sources are expensive, in real life, wind energy is a cheap source of power. Both wind and solar energy cost less than fossil fuels. Any increased prices are likely due to inflation.
Wind energy seems to occupy a lot of space in Trump's mind. At a campaign event in Wisconsin last year, Trump appears to have said people aren't eating bacon because wind energy is expensive.
'You take a look at bacon and some of these products — and some people don't eat bacon any more,' Trump said. 'We are going to get the energy prices down. When we get energy down, you know … this was caused by their horrible energy — wind. They want wind all over the place. But when it doesn't blow, we have a little problem.'
In 2019, Trump claimed at a speech to the National Republican Congressional Committee that the noise from windmills causes cancer. 'If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer. You tell me that one, OK?'
'I hate wind,' Trump reportedly said at Mar-A-Lago last year.
At a rally last year in New Jersey, Trump made the false claim that aquatic wind turbines 'cause tremendous problems with the fish and the whales.' He then compared a dead beached whale to former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
In 2023, he claimed windmills are driving whales 'crazy' and killing them. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there is 'no scientific evidence' that windmills are killing whales.
'The windmills are killing our country by the way,' Trump said earlier this month. He called them 'the greatest scam in history. It's the most expensive energy you can buy. They're ugly.'
On Trump's first day in office, he issued an executive order halting wind energy projects. More than a dozen attorneys general then sued the administration over the executive order. The Trump administration moved to dismiss the suit. Then, earlier this week, a judge said he plans to deny that motion, allowing the case to proceed.
Trump's attitude toward wind energy has had a palpable effect in the industry, E&E News reported.
'We've seen a chilling effect across the industry from the administration's stance on offshore wind, and subsequent damaging executive orders,' Katharine Kollins, president of the Southeastern Wind Coalition, told the outlet.
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