“‘For years, the clean tech world had a lot of idealistic founders who felt that the rules of capitalism had changed, that politics would entirely reorient itself around stopping carbon dioxide emissions, and that’s how we were going to make money,’ said Cody Finke, the founder of a start-up called Brimstone. “And I think that was wishful thinking.’”
Brad Plumer, “How Clean Energy Firms Are Trying to Survive the Trump Era.” New York Times (March 28, 2026). Subtitle: “Offshore wind is out. Geothermal power is in. And many climate technology start-ups are looking for ways to carry on without federal backing.”
Clean energy isn’t dead in the Trump era. But it does look different these days.
Since returning to office, President Trump has dismantled federal efforts to fight climate change and vowed to stop new wind turbines from going up. His administration has canceled billions of dollars in funding for technologies that might one day help reduce planet-warming emissions, and it has instead pushed to expand domestic oil and gas drilling.
Those moves have taken a brutal toll on America’s budding clean energy industry, including canceled offshore wind farms, shuttered electric-car factories and layoffs at climate technology start-ups.
Yet many clean energy executives say they are finding ways to adapt, and some promising technologies that might help slow global warming are moving forward.
Some industries, such as geothermal energy or nuclear power, still receive support from the Trump administration. Start-ups that could help cut emissions from factories are figuring out how to survive without federal support. Others, such as battery companies, are looking to pitch themselves as a solution for the artificial intelligence and data center boom.
More than 300 start-ups attended a major annual energy industry summit this week, known as CERAWeek by S&P Global, showcasing ideas for investors and policymakers like advanced batteries that can store power for multiple days and lower-emission jet fuel.
“We’ve just gone through an era of radical uncertainty” for clean energy, said Alex Kizer, an executive vice president at the Energy Futures Initiative, a Washington nonprofit organization. “And for a lot of companies, there are big questions on how they’ll evolve going forward.”
One big shift is how the industry seeks to find new investments for ideas that could bring major climate benefits. Many executives said they were no longer counting on government subsidies or the good will of environmentally minded politicians to support their business.
“For years, the clean tech world had a lot of idealistic founders who felt that the rules of capitalism had changed, that politics would entirely reorient itself around stopping carbon dioxide emissions, and that’s how we were going to make money,” said Cody Finke, the founder of a start-up called Brimstone. “And I think that was wishful thinking.”
When Brimstone was founded in 2019, the company aimed to produce cement with half the carbon-dioxide emissions of regular cement, by using carbon-free silicate rocks instead of limestone. The Biden administration awarded the company a $189 million grant as part of its push to reduce carbon emissions from heavy industry. But the Trump administration abruptly canceled the grant last year.
Mr. Finke said Brimstone hasn’t been deterred. The company recently announced that it had refined its process so it can harvest those same silicate rocks to produce both cement and other valuable industrial materials like alumina, a precursor to aluminum that the United States typically imports. The bet is that by producing multiple products together, Brimstone can become economically competitive with traditional cement makers.
“If you’re going to solve the climate problem,” Mr. Finke said, “you’re going to have to find solutions that just have fundamentally better economics.”
Other companies are making similar bets that they can displace fossil fuels even without government subsidies.
Another start-up, AtmosZero, is developing giant heat pumps that can be used instead of gas-fired boilers to generate steam for industrial facilities. The company is already testing its technology at a brewery in Fort Collins, Colo., trying to demonstrate that electrifying can make financial sense for companies — while also being cleaner.
“A decade ago, you might’ve called us clean tech or climate tech, but we’re really focused on the value of electrification,” said Addison Stark, the start-up’s chief executive. “We want our technology to be cost-effective no matter which way the policy pendulum swings.”