{"id":697851,"date":"2026-06-11T14:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T14:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/697851\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T14:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T14:17:11","slug":"despite-trumps-attacks-solar-outperforms-coal-in-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/697851\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite Trump\u2019s Attacks, Solar Outperforms Coal in U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Washington, D.C. \u2014 In a historic first, solar energy\u00a0outperformed<\/a>\u00a0coal in the United States in May 2026.\u00a0This milestone arrives despite Donald Trump\u2019s anti-renewable energy policy.<\/p>\n

Since taking office, Donald Trump has launched attack after attack on renewable energy, including:\u00a0slashing<\/a>\u00a0federal grants,\u00a0issuing<\/a>\u00a0stop work orders on wind projects, and even\u00a0paying off<\/a>\u00a0energy companies to abandon renewable projects in favor of more fossil fuels. Last week, Donald Trump doubled down, handing Big Coal more than $700 million in taxpayer money in his continued failed efforts to prop up the flailing fuel source at taxpayer\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n

In the first half of 2025, renewable energy\u00a0overtook<\/a>\u00a0coal as the largest source of electricity globally. Solar energy is now the\u00a0cheapest<\/a>\u00a0source of energy, and\u00a0reliably<\/a>\u00a0produces energy during extreme weather when fossil fuels fail.<\/p>\n

In response, Sierra Club Climate Policy Director Patrick Drupp issued the following statement:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how much Donald Trump tries to use our tax dollars to resurrect unpopular, expensive, and deadly coal plants, there is no coal renaissance in the United States. Despite all of his administration\u2019s relentless attacks on renewable energy, solar is still outperforming coal in capacity, reliability, and cost. It\u2019s time for Donald Trump to abandon his coal delusions and read the writing on the wall that Americans want\u2014and deserve\u2014clean, affordable, renewable energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

About the Sierra Club<\/p>\n

The Sierra Club is America\u2019s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person\u2019s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action.\u00a0For more information, visit\u00a0www.sierraclub.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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CleanTechnica’s Comment Policy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe. Washington, D.C. \u2014 In a historic first, solar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[12,192,79,22021,185320,185321],"class_list":["post-697851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-donald-trump","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-sierra-club","tag-us-solar","tag-us-solar-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}