Speaking in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum, among many other topics, President Trump brought up wind energy. From a transcript of his remarks:
Because of my landslide election victory, the United States avoided the catastrophic energy collapse which befell every European nation that pursued the Green New Scam, perhaps the greatest hoax in history. The Green New Scam, windmills all over the place, destroy your land, destroy your land. Every time that goes around, you lose a thousand dollars. You’re supposed to make money with energy, not lose money.
Here in Europe, we’ve seen the fate that the radical left tried to impose on America. They tried very hard. Germany now generates 22 percent less electricity than it did in 2017. And it’s not the current chancellor’s fault. He’s solving the problem. He’s going to do a great job. But what they did before he got there, I guess that’s why he got there. And electricity prices are 64 percent higher…
The United Kingdom produces just one third of the total energy from all sources that it did in 1999. Think of that, one third. And they’re sitting on top of the North Sea, one of the greatest reserves anywhere in the world. But they don’t use it. And that’s one reason why their energy has reached catastrophically low levels with equally high prices. High prices, very low levels. Think of that, one third, and you’re sitting on top of the North Sea…
Sitting on one of the greatest energy sources in the world, and they don’t use it. In fact, their electricity prices have soared 139 percent. There are windmills all over Europe.
There are windmills all over the place. And they are losers. One thing I’ve noticed is that the more windmills a country has, the more money that country loses and the worse that country is doing. China makes almost all of the windmills, and yet I haven’t been able to find any wind farms in China. Did you ever think of that? It’s a good way of looking. You know, they’re smart. China is very smart. They make them. They sell them for a fortune. They sell them to the stupid people that buy them, but they don’t use them themselves.
They put up a couple of big wind farms, but they don’t use them. They just put them up to show people what they could look like. They don’t spin. They don’t do anything. They use the thing called coal mostly. China goes with the coal. They go with oil and gas. They’re starting to look at nuclear a little bit, and they’re doing just fine. They make a fortune selling the windmills, though, and I think, really, that’s one that they wouldn’t be surprised if it stopped. They are shocked that it continues to go.
A report by the Financial Times earlier this month confirmed China’s energy preferences, according to industry website OilPrice.com:
China continues to nearly single-handedly prop up global coal consumption and new coal-fired power generation, despite being also the world’s leading investor in renewables and battery storage.
China is set to commission as many as 85 coal-fired power generating units this year, out of a total global of 104 coal projects slated for start-up in 2026, according to data by non-profit Global Energy Monitor (GEM) cited by the Financial Times.
Of all the 63 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power generation expected to begin commercial operations globally this year, 55 GW will be in China, the GEM data showed.
Last year, China accounted for a massive 78% of all global coal power capacity that began operating. The world’s top coal consumer and importer also makes up a whopping 86% of the total global capacity under construction and expected to be commissioned this year, according to the data analyzed by GEM.
In his Davos speech, President Trump highlighted his work in the U.S.: “Instead of closing down energy plants, we’re opening them up. Instead of building ineffective, money-losing windmills, we’re taking them down and not approving any.”
While that’s mostly true, the president’s Interior Department belatedly paused the large Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, citing concerns over radar interference for the U.S. Navy. A federal judge issued an injunction against the department’s suspension of the project’s permits, which allowed construction to continue.
NLPC, which is a co-plaintiff in a lawsuit with Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow and the Heartland Institute against the Virginia project, has called for the Interior Department to appeal the judge’s ruling. NLPC also called upon Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to withdraw his support for CVOW before he left office earlier this month.
In our view, both President Trump and Gov. Youngkin waited too long to act. For the President’s actions to match his strong remarks in Switzerland, he needs to urge Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to appeal the judge’s decision on CVOW as soon as possible.
