President Trump tilts at windmills with the help of Iowa Republicans

There is something President Donald Trump despises almost as much as truth, justice and LED light bulbs.

“I hate wind,” Trump told oil and gas industry executives at a fundraiser in April 2024, according to the Washington Post.

“If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75% in value. And they say the noise causes cancer. And of course it’s like a graveyard for birds,” Trump said in 2020. Not to mention wind’s effect on his hair.

Windmill cancer is not really a thing. Also, cats and tall buildings kill far more birds than wind turbines.

Hating wind is one way to show Trump loyalty. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum says offshore wind turbines would disrupt our radar, allowing an undersea drone attack. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. argues that turbines create electromagnetic waves harmful to wildlife and humans.

The Department of Energy recently posted on X that solar and wind are “worthless when it is dark outside, and the wind is not blowing.” Apparently, these experts have never heard of battery storage.

So, in Trump’s Huge Beastly Bulging Bill, there are provisions for shutting down federal tax credits for the construction of wind and solar energy infrastructure. It will slow our march toward a clean energy future. Trump prefers coal.

Under Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, wind tax credit availability was extended to 2032. Basically, under Trump’s bill, wind power developers have until July 2026 to submit applications for projects underway, which must be completed before 2028.

“One thing that the big, beautiful Bill has done is it's almost created like a gold rush,” said Steve Guyer, senior energy policy counsel for the Iowa Environmental Council. “As far as wind and solar, you're going to have an awful lot of entities trying to move very quickly, securing contracts, trying to basically move these things forward.”

Eliminating tax credits will not halt wind energy development, it will just make it more expensive. It’s a feature, not a flaw. Utilities will still build wind farms because they need power. But it will cost them more, and who do you think will ultimately pay more? Customers.

Tax credits have helped build a thriving wind energy industry in Iowa. We get roughly 60% of our electric power from the wind. According to Power Up Iowa, $30 billion has been invested in renewable energy in Iowa, 14,500 jobs are supported by clean power and no other state generates as much of its electricity from clean sources.

So, you’d think Trump’s effort to kneecap the wind energy industry would draw a strong rebuke from Iowa’s congressional delegation. Nah.

“This is transformational legislation,” U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running for the U.S. Senate and has been endorsed by Trump, told reporters. “ … By advancing smart permitting reform, ensuring tax certainty for energy producers and rejecting harmful mandates, we can and will secure an affordable, reliable American-made energy future.”

Aside from that word salad, Hinson favors an “all of the above” energy strategy.

“Trump's policy is not an all of the above policy,” said Josh Mandelbaum, senior attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center “Trump's policy is actively hostile and trying to put a thumb on the scale against wind. So, if you're in favor of all of the above, you should be speaking up.”

Energy Secretary Chris Wright came to Iowa and said wind energy must stand on its own two feet without federal help. Members of Iowa’s congressional delegation meekly agreed. What about tax credits and a federally mandated market for ethanol? No comment.

So, Iowa Republicans are coddling the wind hater in chief at the expense of their own state. It’s almost as if their principles are determined by which way Trump’s hair blows.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com