The US is forfeiting the clean-energy race to China

As Trump doubles down on fossil fuels, US and China offer competing visions for energy

- David Uberti, Ed Ballard & Brian Spegele

China installed 277 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity in the first seven months of the year.

(BLOOMBERG)

An empty, 1.3-million-square-foot warehouse north of Denver was supposed to be an emblem of cutting-edge manufacturing.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis heralded a California company’s plan to build a battery factory onsite as a push to “power the future.”

But an already weakening growth outlook for electric vehicles deteriorated as President Trump’s tax bill wound its way through Congress. Amprius Technologies didn’t wait for the legislation to pass and pulled out of Colorado earlier this year.

The technical know-how for such work is “still developing in the U.S.,” Amprius Chief Executive Kang Sun said. “Meanwhile, other countries have spent years building mature, cost-efficient battery industries, giving them a significant head start.”

Three of the four manufacturers Amprius contracts to pump out its batteries for drones, bikes and maybe one day cars are in China.

The company’s U-turn underscores anew reality: America has given up its effort to challenge China in the renewable-energy industries that increasingly power the global economy.

As Trump doubles down on fossil fuels, the U.S. and China are offering competing visions for the future of energy, representing the next dimension in the showdown between two superpowers vying for global influence and artificial intelligence supremacy.

The U.S. renewables retreat goes far beyond the tax bill that is winding down more than $400 billion in estimated subsidies. Federal agencies have tightened rules for new development. The Trump administration recently terminated amultibillion-dollar loan guarantee for a Midwest transmission line, halted a near-complete wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and canceled $3.7 billion of funding for technologies that could reduce industrial emissions.