Billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya defended President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” against claims that the rollback of certain subsidies has harmed the solar energy industry.
Trump ‘Did Not Kill Solar’
On Sunday, in a post on X, Palihapitiya said, “To be very clear, Trump did not kill solar,” adding that “the best run solar businesses” have continued to thrive even after the passing of the bill, which brought steep cuts to incentives for solar and wind power projects.
According to the Social Capital CEO, the real impact of Trump's actions was the removal of Biden-era incentives that, in his view, distorted market dynamics. “What Trump did, precisely, is kill a bunch of Biden-era subsidies that were being taken advantage of by many companies to pervert a free market from well functioning to dysfunctional,” he said.
Palihapitiya claimed the withdrawal of subsidies has led to a cleansing effect within the industry. “Without subsidies, the worst-run companies in solar are rapidly going out of business,” he said.
“It's now possible to compare coal, oil, natural gas, and solar on a mostly like-for-like basis,” which he said will lead to more investment in the sector, but acknowledged that as a result of these rollbacks, some projects “no longer make sense and will be stopped.”
Palihapitiya said, “There are many thriving and explosively growing Solar companies,” citing Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Palmetto, which he calls the “biggest and fastest growing,” that have succeeded in driving compelling value, despite the loss of subsidies.
He concluded by saying that “this is because Trump took the IRA subsidies away and let the free market do its thing to differentiate the best from the rest.”
Trump Slams Brakes On Solar And Wind Projects
In addition to ending subsidies, the Trump administration recently declared that it will not approve any new wind and solar power projects. “We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar,” Trump said, adding that “the days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!”
Early last month, the administration withdrew $679 million in federal funding for twelve infrastructure projects, aimed at supporting offshore wind power in the United States.
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