The administration will not authorize wind or solar projects, President Donald Trump declared on Truth Social on Wednesday.
"We will not approve wind or farmer destroying solar," the president wrote, insisting that "the days of stupidity are over in the USA!"
He called the reliance on wind and solar energy the "scam of the century" and declared that "any state that has built and relied on windmills and solar for power are seeing record breaking increases in electricity and energy costs."
Trump's announcement came after the Treasury released guidance on Friday changing the criteria that most wind and solar projects have to use to demonstrate that they started construction before the deadline to qualify for the 45Y and 48E tax credits, Utility Dive reported.
Before the announcement, developers had to prove that 5% or more of the total cost of the project has been paid.
The new Treasury guidance states that construction on wind and solar projects "begins when physical work of a significant nature begins," whether the work is off-site or on-site, according to Utility Dive.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act phased out the 45Y clean energy production tax credit and 48E clean energy investment tax credit for wind and solar projects that are placed in service after 2027 but gave an exception for those starting construction by July 5, 2026, a year after the signing of the bill.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.