Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Energy Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
At briefing, president criticizes wind farms and aides tout coal, energy dominance agenda
Summary
Reporters asked about wind power and the administration's energy priorities; the president and officials criticized wind turbines as "unsightly" and said they had restricted wind-farm approvals, while a senior official said administration policy kept 35 gigawatts of coal online and prioritized 'reliable' energy sources.
A reporter asked whether the federal government was still funding wind turbines. President Trump responded sharply, saying, "They are horrible. They are unsightly... They ruin housing values... They kill all the birds," and said he had "restricted wind farms" and hoped for "no wind farms approved" except for exceptional reasons.
A senior administration official at the event defended the broader 'energy dominance' agenda, saying policies had kept 35 gigawatts of coal online over the past year and credited regulatory changes with unleashing private capital for fossil fuels and nuclear. The official said the four private reactor companies did not receive government grants and framed the policy as enabling private investment by reducing regulation.
The briefing presented an explicit shift in rhetorical emphasis away from some renewables toward an "all-of-the-above" framing privileging baseload sources; officials did not announce specific rulemakings or changes to existing renewable-energy programs during the event.
