What happens to US energy policy under Trump?

President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of climate change skeptic Myron Ebell to lead his transition team’s environmental working group (he is also a possible candidate to head the EPA) has made renewable energy supporters nervous.

Ebell works for a libertarian think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, whose website states that it “questions global warming alarmism, makes the case for access to affordable energy, and opposes energy-rationing policies, including the Kyoto Protocol, cap-and-trade legislation, and EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. CEI also opposes all government mandates and subsidies for conventional and alternative energy technologies.”

And Trump, of course, has stated that his administration will be more interested in boosting the coal industry than the offshore wind or solar power industry. But if President Obama is right in describing Trump as a pragmatist rather than an ideologue, the incoming president conceivably could modify his stance. New York State, of course, is aggressively pursuing an alternative energy agenda, and offshore wind will be a part of that.

Look for the states to fill the void in environmental regulation and alternative energy policy if the federal government opts out.

Massachusetts remains a national leader in energy efficiency with fast growth in solar and a commitment to build 1,600 MW of offshore wind power over the next decade.