USEA Virtual Press Briefing: New Rules, Old Trajectories
Jan Vrins, Clarum Advisors—Panel Participant
April 16, 2025
On April 16, 2025, the USEA hosted a virtual press briefing examining how new rules and actions taken by the Trump administration will affect the electric power sector. A panel of experts in the energy transition and utilities space, including Jan Vrins, Partner at Clarum Advisors, fielded questions from a panel of journalists covering the industry for the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, PBS, Energy Central, Politico’s E&E News and Utility Dive. The briefing was hosted and moderated by Llewellyn King, executive producer and host of White House Chronicle, PBS.
Key Takeaways
Affect of new rules under Trump administration on the electric power industry
Federal contract spending is almost untouched, though there are significant impacts on grant spending—DOGE’s impact to date on the Department of Energy is minor. A lot of electric power industry policy is driven at the state level, which may insulate utilities.
Utility impacts of day-to-day uncertainty introduced by the Administration
Utilities are primarily motivated to ensure they’re providing reliable, affordable power to their customers—which requires long-term thinking and planning. The long-term nature of utility planning and implementation cycles means the effects of short-term policy shifts on the utility industry are muted.
Future of “clean coal” research under new Administration
Given the Administration’s push for “big beautiful coal,” there’s significant potential for funding to revitalize research on gasification of coal for the production of chemicals and fertilizers—rather than a backward movement towards advancing clean coal as an energy source.
Utility response to Administration on energy transition
Responses vary geographically, and by generation type (e.g., offshore wind has been negatively impacted) but for the most part utilities are not abandoning energy transition plans—though they may be moving more slowly on them.
Impacts of Administration’s tariffs on energy flows between US and Canada
Some large electricity producers in Canada have recently announced they will pull back planned electricity sales to the US in response to actions by the Administration, focusing instead on expanding East-West energy transmission and sales across Canada.
Effects of short-term policy changes on utility industry
Short-term policy changes and rule changes at the federal level are unlikely to have major implications for utility strategy and planning, as customer demand largely drives utility investment. To the extent that customers are demanding clean energy, utilities will continue to meet that need. Data center-induced load growth will continue to drive investments in generation, and since clean energy sources are becoming more economic than traditional generation, utilities will continue to increase renewable energy production to meet demand.
Administration impacts to hydrogen economy
US will be even further behind Europe in terms of advancing hydrogen as a result of the Administration. Europe is utilizing its existing gas infrastructure to facilitate hydrogen, and companies there are subject to a European emissions trading system, which will help their hydrogen economy advance more quickly relative to the US which does not have and will not have a countrywide emissions trading system.
Future of clean energy incentives under the new Administration
The process for funding approval was already cumbersome before changes by DOGE and the Administration. Combining that with the uncertainty now in play, groups will not be able to rely on incentives as heavily and will rely more heavily on partnerships and other channels.
Administration’s impact on innovation
Some areas of innovation will lose out, but innovation itself will continue—innovation will shift away from hydrogen, offshore wind and less favored areas towards energy optimization, resilience and energy independence.