Deal or No Deal? Has Trump Driven Stake Through Heart of ‘Green New Scam’?

Is the Green New Deal dead or not?

On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump repeatedly vowed to repeal what he called the “green new scam”—his pejorative for the various green energy subsidies and regulations instituted by former President Joe Biden, mostly through the Inflation Reduction Act.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus—a conservative faction of the House of Representatives—told The Daily Signal that Trump has dealt the Green New Deal a blow, but it’s still on its last legs. The Freedom Caucus led the charge to phase out Biden-era green energy subsidies and tax breaks during debates over the “big, beautiful” budget reconciliation bill.

“The fight against the Green New Deal is not over, by a long shot,” said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., on stage at an event celebrating the caucus’ 10th anniversary. “Even today, the energy and water appropriations bill continued many of the aspects of the green new scam. It’s going to continue wind and solar.”

Biggs added that the bill “is one more example of how this town is controlled by special interests at the very highest level,” adding, “We have got to stand up repeatedly.”

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., told The Daily Signal at the event that the Green New Deal isn’t dead, “but it needs to be.”

“We are trying our best in every single opportunity to make sure that we rip it out—every root of it,” he said, adding: “Every single Republican voted against it when the Democrats put it on the floor and every single Republican should now be working with us … . What the green new scam has done is ensure that everybody’s energy prices are higher and that our grid is less reliable.”

In July, Republicans passed the budget reconciliation bill that phased out subsidies for solar and wind energy projects.

Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, however, says that it was not the budget reconciliation bill, but Trump’s subsequent executive order, that practically killed the Green New Deal.

The July executive order, “ENDING MARKET DISTORTING SUBSIDIES FOR UNRELIABLE, FOREIGN CONTROLLED ENERGY SOURCES,” followed discussions with Freedom Caucus members and directed the federal government to pull the plug on “unaffordable and unreliable ‘green’ energy sources and supply chains built in, and controlled by, foreign adversaries.”

“After the executive order, I believe it’s pretty close to being dead,” said Self. “You can tell how dramatic the [executive order] was by the pushback they got from the states that think it’s jobs. So, that will tell you how close it should be to expiring, as in dead.”

The state attorneys general of Rhode Island and Connecticut have sued the Trump administration for revoking permission for a nearly complete offshore windmill project.

One congressman who’s particularly passionate about ending Democrat-backed subsidies for green energy is House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md.

The sole Republican congressman from Maryland, Harris has for years railed against an offshore windmill project in his district, which he argues would be wasteful and disruptive to the tourism and fishing industries. The Trump administration is now moving to cancel that project.

He suggested that energy sources such as wind and solar “are going to have to go it on their own” without government subsidies, but that certain other energy sources, such as geothermal and nuclear, will likely have to continue to be supported.

“Nuclear is probably something that we are going to have to invest in, geothermal, things like that,” he said. “So, there are aspects of that that will probably be preserved and that will be all right, but the subsidies for onshore wind and solar should go away, because they should be competitive without federal subsidies now. Of course, offshore wind never should have been subsidized and should just go away.”

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