Trump Found Another Way to Hurt North Carolina

 

Renewable energy is a growing industry in North Carolina’s economy. The state has over 7,300 jobs in the solar sector and ranks fifth in the U.S. for total installed solar capacity, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

--NandO Business News

Trump gives big love to oil and gas tycoons, and he parrots their attack lines against solar and wind. In the first month of his 2nd term, Trump's Department of the Interior suspended all clean energy development. Last August Trump called solar energy "THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY." His Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, at the same time Trump was mashing keys on Truth Social, announced that his department would rescind “all programs building solar panels on our farmland.” Yeah, we get the picture.

Trump has been told that somehow the generation of energy from direct sunlight and wind drives oil and gas prices up, along with electricity -- ridiculous notions that are easily disproven. Like with every other stupid notion that lodges inside his brainpan, Trump has been relentless. He deliberately placed high tariffs on almost all materials needed to build large-scale solar projects, and the Big Beautiful Turd passed last July by the Republicans in Congress eliminated all tax credits for wind and solar energy. 

Trump can nail the shriveled and bloody skin of Pine Gate Renewables in Asheville, a leading solar energy development firm, to his trophy wall (dammit!). Pine Gate Renewables is closing its Asheville plant and laying off more than 78% of its workforce, some 223 people in Buncombe, as it files for bankruptcy. According to the NandO, Pine Gate has 107 projects with three gigawatts of power capacity, which could power over 2.3 million homes. Pine Gate also has over 130 projects in development, which would have over 30 gigawatts of capacity if completed. If in this case means never. In paperwork filed with the state, Pine Gate blamed its dissolution on Trump.

“With respect to the renewable energy industry, legislative and regulatory challenges have significantly slowed solar power development,” the company's filing with the state said. “In combination, these forces have put extreme pressure on Pine Gate’s liquidity and overall financial position.”