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					</table><p>Solar photovoltaics will no longer qualify under Section 303 of the Defense Production Act (DPA), with President Donald Trump rescinding an order of the previous administration that had designated these technologies as elements of national security.</p>
<p>In an executive order published in the <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Federal Register</a>, Trump canceled his predecessor, Joe Biden’s presidential determination of June 2022, including solar modules and their components from the DPA’s purview.</p>
<p>Biden’s invoking the DPA was intended to expand the domestic production capability for solar photovoltaic modules and module components with funding under the Inflation Reduction Act. The inclusion in the DPA was felt necessary to avert an industrial resource or critical technology item shortfall that would severely impair national defense capability.</p>
<p>The inclusion of solar technologies in the DPA, with the necessary funding appropriated by Congress, was meant to allow the federal government to invest in companies that can build clean energy facilities, expand clean energy manufacturing, process clean energy components, and install clean energy technologies for consumers.</p>
<p>Electrolyzers, fuel cells, and platinum group metals were also included in the 2022 DPA announcement.</p>
<p>Trump signed another executive order using the DPA to increase domestic production of critical minerals, including uranium, copper, potash, and gold.</p>
<p>Immediately after assuming office as the U.S. president in January, Trump <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/trump-pauses-clean-energy-spending" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued</a> a raft of executive orders seeking to reverse the Biden administration’s clean energy agenda. One order directed federal agencies to immediately pause funds disbursement through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).</p>
<p>However, Trump’s actions seeking to reverse support for renewable energy production have caused discomfort within his Republican Party. Earlier this month, a coalition of 21 Republican lawmakers <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/republican-lawmakers-rallies-protect-clean-energy-tax-credits" target="_blank" rel="noopener">urged</a> the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means to safeguard clean energy tax credits enacted under the previous administration to protect private sector investments in domestic energy production and infrastructure.</p>
<p>They highlighted the necessity of continued energy expansion and innovation to bolster national security and secure energy independence.</p>
<p>The Solar Energy Industries Association said in February that solar module manufacturing capacity <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-module-manufacturing-hits-50gw-capacity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">grew</a> five-fold since federal energy policies, such as IRA, were passed to reach 50 GW. It claimed these policies allowed the U.S. to become the world’s third-largest solar module producer.</p>


Trump Ends Support for Solar Manufacturing Under Defense Production Act


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					</table><p>Soon after assuming office as U.S. president, Donald Trump issued a raft of executive orders seeking to reverse his predecessor’s climate and energy agenda. One order directed federal agencies to immediately pause the disbursement of funds through the landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/inflation-reduction-act-faster-transition-clean-energy-u-s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposed</a> spending millions of dollars to promote clean energy.</p>
<p>He directed revoking the ‘Implementation of the Energy and Infrastructure Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022’ and any offices established therein. Terminating the ‘Green New Deal,’ Trump’s order said all agencies would immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the IRA or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, including but not limited to funds for electric vehicle charging stations.</p>
<p>However, the impact of executive orders on clean energy development is unlikely to be significant. According to the White House, contracts for 84% of all IRA funds have already been signed between federal agencies and clean energy companies.</p>
<p>More importantly, it is unlikely that the freeze on disbursements will impact IRA tax credits since they are protected by statute and cannot be eliminated by executive orders. Moreover, the tax credits have bipartisan support, and Congress would have to approve any rollback.</p>
<p>The previous Biden administration had described the IRA as the single largest and most ambitious investment in the U.S.’s ability to advance clean energy, cut consumer energy costs, confront the climate crisis, promote environmental justice, and strengthen energy security.</p>
<p>Trump’s executive order pausing spending directs agencies to review grants, loans, and other payments associated with the IRA. According to the American Clean Power Association, the clean energy industry in the U.S. has <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/ira-fuels-record-investment-us-clean-energy-sector" target="_blank" rel="noopener">received</a> investments of over $150 billion since 2022.</p>
<p>Trump also ordered a halt to offshore wind energy leasing and permitting. “This withdrawal shall go into effect beginning on January 21, 2025, and shall remain in effect until this Presidential Memorandum is revoked,” the order said. “This withdrawal does not apply to leasing related to any other purposes such as, but not limited to, oil, gas, minerals, and environmental conservation.”</p>
<p><strong>U.S. to Withdraw from Paris Accord </strong></p>
<p>In other executive orders, Trump directed the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. This is not the first time that Trump has withdrawn from the agreement. He announced a withdrawal during his first term in office in 2017. Biden, however, <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-rejoins-paris-climate-agreement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rescinded</a> the order in 2021. The agreement, signed by over 190 countries, seeks to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.</p>
<p>Trump’s executive order has directed the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations to formally write to the Secretary-General about the withdrawal from any agreement or financial commitment made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.</p>
<p><strong>Energy Emergency</strong></p>
<p>Trump also declared a national energy emergency to protect the U.S. from an inadequate energy supply and infrastructure that resulted in high energy prices. In his inauguration speech, he invoked the ‘drill baby, drill’ rhetoric from his election campaign. The orders that followed the speech attempt to unburden the oil and gas industry from tough emission regulations.</p>
<p>He directed all the relevant agencies to conduct an immediate review of actions that potentially burden the development of domestic energy resources, with particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, biofuels, critical mineral, and nuclear energy resources.</p>
<p><strong>Electric Vehicles</strong></p>
<p>Trump also revoked the “electric vehicle (EV) mandate” to promote true consumer choice by ensuring a level regulatory playing field for vehicle choices and terminating state emissions waivers that limit sales of gasoline-powered automobiles.</p>
<p>The order seeks to eliminate “unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived’ government-imposed market distortions that favor EVs over other technologies and effectively mandate their purchase by individuals, private businesses, and government entities alike by rendering other types of vehicles unaffordable.</p>
<p>Biden had signed a mandate for 50% of all new vehicles to be electric vehicles by 2030.</p>


Trump Pauses Clean Energy Spending but IRA Tax Credits to Survive

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