Renewable energy is a “green scam” and countries should avoid it like the bubonic plague if they ever hope to succeed according to President Donald Trump. He even backed up his rhetoric through his vaunted “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which slashed various tax credits and subsidies for renewable energy infrastructure stemming from Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
“Energy is another area where the United States is now thriving like never before. We’re getting rid of the falsely named renewables,” said President Trump in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in September. “They’re a joke. They don’t work… All green is all bankrupt.”
However, despite the federal government’s extreme adversarial stance towards renewable energy, investors in the stock market are instead embracing the industry and pushing related shares up.
The S&P Global Clean Energy Transition Index increased by 42.6% since the beginning of Trump’s second term to $1,033.42, which doubled the percentage growth observed in the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 Index over the same time period.
“Trump did not have an adversarial approach, he was simply not in favor of subsidizing the renewable energy industry,” said Andrew Cuniglio, a retail investor who isn’t heavily invested in renewable energy companies. “But I suffer from FOMO now and then, especially when I see stocks moving up considerably.”
The clean energy index tracks around 100 renewable energy-based companies which includes Bloom Energy, GE Vernova and NextEra Energy. These three companies’ share prices have performed exceptionally well during Trump’s second term, growing by 211%, 54% and 43% respectively.
When the ‘BBB’ wound its way through Congress, companies believed the clean energy industry would take a massive hit, but after Trump signed the bill into law in July, many felt the expected damage was blunted.
“The amendments made to the IRA were actually less severe than originally thought at the beginning of the year,” said Evercore Vice President of Equity Research Nicholas Amicucci. “So you saw a boost across the renewable space from a stock performance perspective.”
Most federal incentives for wind and solar energy projects were phased out with certain stipulations. Developers will be eligible for tax credits and benefits on such projects if they finish planning and begin construction onsite by July 4, 2026, albeit, the turnaround time for many projects still in development will be difficult to manage. Other clean energy sources like geothermal power, nuclear energy and low-emissions hydrogen were left relatively unscathed by the landmark legislation.
For those who expected the worst, the actual result was a relative positive. Although, the expedited timeline for projects mandated in Trump’s bill have front-loaded the demand for wind and solar energy infrastructure to ensure timely build outs before the deadline which has also boosted the industry according to Amicucci.
The artificial intelligence boom has also been a boon for the companies in the clean energy space which has further raised energy demand.
NextEra Energy made deals with Meta and Google in the beginning of December to construct energy infrastructure and source multiple gigawatts worth of energy for data center projects built by the tech giants. GE Vernova expanded its partnership with Amazon to support their AWS data center scaling in March.
Bloom Energy agreed to a $5 billion partnership in October with Brookfield Renewable Partners to provide fuel cells and further build AI infrastructure globally and agreed to power select data centers owned and operated by Oracle in July. Following the Oracle deal, Bloom Energy share prices started to tick upwards and have since tripled in value.
Demand for electricity is projected to grow by over 23% over the next decade according to the American Clean Power Association. Powering AI is quite energy-intensive and this year has seen a record amount of investment into related infrastructure, totalling $61 billion which is mainly coming from segments of the Magnificent 7.
“It’s a rising tide lifts all boats,” said Alejandro de las Rosas Rivera, an analyst at Signum Research. “We’re just so short of power and we need power yesterday so you need to just have all hands on deck.”
Although these companies reside in the clean energy space, they also implement fossil fuel capabilities into their business model. Oil, gas and coal can burn around the clock whereas many forms of renewable energy are constrained by the elements and time of day. The nature of data centers makes it so clean energy alone won’t be able to power the entirety of its operations.
Bloom Energy manufactures fuel cells that create energy onsite using various forms of energy – chief among them natural gas. NextEra Energy even partnered with GE Vernova in January to build natural gas plants throughout the country as both companies seek to expand their fossil fuel portfolio.
At the same time Trump has gone on the offensive against renewables, he has also gone full steam ahead in favor of traditional energy. He plans to open up more than a billion acres of land for oil and natural gas drilling as well as lift regulations on emissions standards and allow gas infrastructure projects to continue construction regardless of any pending litigation.
“I’ve never really categorized these companies as renewable companies per se,” said Rivera. “They’re more power solutions providers with the ability to address this insatiable appetite for power.”
The soft pivot towards non-renewable energy was necessary for these green energy companies in an age where renewables are frowned upon by the federal government.
However, despite the industry’s lax view on Trump’s renewable energy policies, clean energy is still quite vulnerable under the current administration. Through November of this year, companies have cancelled more than $32 billion in clean energy investments according to E2, an energy research and advocacy group. Hundreds of solar and wind energy projects across the country have been delayed because of rollbacks to the IRA.
Yet traditional fossil fuel companies are underperforming many of their clean energy competitors in the stock market.
“When you think of just the amount of demand that’s coming online over the next couple of years and the lack of supply that is adjoining that. So I think you have the ability to see these more diverse companies succeed,” said Amicucci.