• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises

2

Despite having a $165 million net worth, Scarlett Johansson says work-life balance doesn’t exist—and the first step to success is admitting that

3

Current price of oil as of May 15, 2026

1

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises

2

Despite having a $165 million net worth, Scarlett Johansson says work-life balance doesn’t exist—and the first step to success is admitting that

3

Current price of oil as of May 15, 2026
Commentaryclean energy

Trump’s crusade to cripple clean energy has found its match: the free market and global finance

By
Andrew Behar
Andrew Behar
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Andrew Behar
Andrew Behar
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 27, 2025, 8:00 AM ET
Donald Trump
President Donald Trump.Alex Wong/Getty Images

Just as President Biden experienced the limits of federal power to accelerate the clean-energy transition, President Trump is learning the limits of big government to stop it. In America, market forces still eclipse political theater, especially when the outcome means cheaper power, better tech, and lower risk.

Recommended Video

While too many politicians, blinded by big oil donations, willfully deny clean energy’s benefits and forward progress, investors at every level agree that the energy transition makes economic sense as fossil fuels rapidly wind down. Clean power just crossed a historic threshold: In 2024, 96% of new energy added to the U.S. grid was from renewable energy and more than 40% of the world’s electricity came from low-carbon sources, driven by record renewables growth and a solar surge that has doubled output in three years. That’s the market—not politics—pricing the future in real time.

When the cheapest, fastest-to-build electrons scale this quickly, capital follows. Even though Trump has told the International Energy Agency (IEA) to fix their numbers, they continue to confirm that global demand for oil is dropping as the internal combustion engine becomes obsolete and renewables outprice fossils. As the IEA recently reported, renewable energy will overtake coal to become the world’s top source of electricity by 2026 — “at the latest.”

As one would expect in an economy transitioning to cleaner energy, financing and deals from banks for fossil-fuel projects are declining. Bloomberg recently reported that funding provided by the top six U.S. banks to oil, gas, and coal projects fell 25% so far this year. Big banks may have left GFANZ (Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero) due to political pressure, but their investments tell a different story.

Hedge funds are also rotating out of oil and back into renewables because the risk-adjusted math has flipped. Some of the savviest investors in the world, these funds have been net short oil stocks for seven of the nine months since October 2024, while unwinding bearish bets on solar. When the sharpest risk managers on the Street stop leaning into oil beta and start letting solar run, everyone should pay attention.

And it isn’t just big investors that want to invest sustainably. According to a recent Morgan Stanley survey, 76% of 401(k) participants already use or want sustainable options—with return expectations as the top motivator. The only impediment to more sustainable investment among the 100 million retirement savers in America is that most either don’t have a sustainable option in their plan, don’t realize their plan offers these choices, or that they don’t know what they own—gaps we can fix by expanding plan lineups, education, and using tools like As You Sow’s Invest Your Values platform.

It’s time to get back to building the future

It’s a testament to the intelligence of American investors that they understand a cleaner energy future is not only profitable, but creates the future they want to live in. All despite years of persistent and well-coordinated propaganda by fossil-fuel funded culture warriors and politicians at every level of government. Markets seem to be absorbing the “Drill baby, drill!” noise and continuing to fund and invest in a sustainable future. Whether peak demand for oil — the point at which there’s more supply than demand — arrives this year or later in the decade, the political growth thesis for dirty energy is going the way of Blockbuster. Financial performance tells us as much.

The anti-ESG showcase fund DRLL, launched by Vivek Ramaswamy to support his political ambitions, has lagged the market since inception and has been negative over the last 12 months, even as the S&P 500 (SPY) posted 19% gains in the previous 12 months. Once again, attempts to use other people’s money to make a political point fails spectacularly — and at a cost to investors who fall for false political narratives detached from market realities.

In 2023, I wrote that political efforts to roll back progress would “crumble against the wall of economic reality.” The same cost curves that powered the last rally are still bending: cheaper solar and storage, better capacity factors, maturing supply chains, and a capital stack (tax equity, infrastructure funds, green bonds) that keeps filling even as emotional rhetoric swirls.

It’s time to stop fretting about an imagined end to clean energy finance and get back to the business of building the future—grid upgrades, storage, efficiency, clean generation, low-carbon materials, and procurement that matches long-term corporate strategy. Investors from pension committees to index providers to hedge funds have already moved their money to capitalize a more profitable future.

While the political winds may seem strong, market forces are a hurricane in comparison and will inevitably prevail over politics. This is because voters and investors want the same thing: cheaper, cleaner, less volatile energy—and credible plans to deliver it. It’s where capital is flowing. It’s where companies are executing. And it’s where responsible shareholders like us will keep pushing—quietly when we can, loudly when we must—until the transition that smart money knows is coming is the economy we live in.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

Join us at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit May 19–20, 2026, in Atlanta. The next era of workplace innovation is here—and the old playbook is being rewritten. At this exclusive, high-energy event, the world’s most innovative leaders will convene to explore how AI, humanity, and strategy converge to redefine, again, the future of work. Register now.
About the Author
By Andrew Behar
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Commentary

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Andrew Behar is CEO of As You Sow, the nation’s leading non-profit practitioner of shareholder advocacy and engagement. Previously Andrew was a documentary filmmaker and entrepreneur founding start-ups that developed innovative physiological monitoring devices and grid-scale fuel cells. He is currently on the Sustainable Media Center Board of Advisors. He is the author of the book, The Shareholders Action Guide: Unleash Your Hidden Powers to Hold Corporations Accountable, published by Berrett-Koehler.


Latest in Commentary

greg
Personal FinanceAviation
Mamdani’s New York is coming to tax your private jet. Here’s how to prepare
By Greg RaiffMay 16, 2026
26 minutes ago
chase
CommentaryCities
San Francisco has $2 trillion in AI wealth and can’t fix its own city. That’s every city’s problem
By Chase GarbarinoMay 15, 2026
21 hours ago
lori
Commentarymental health
I run Valvoline Instant Oil Change and work with young people every day. They’re in crisis—and we all have to try to help
By Lori FleesMay 15, 2026
22 hours ago
michael
CommentaryEducation
AI is wiping out entry-level jobs. Here’s how colleges can fill the gap
By Michael HansenMay 15, 2026
23 hours ago
krishna
Commentaryregulation
The U.S. has 1,200 AI bills and no good test for any of them
By Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Gary Marcus and Stephen HenriquesMay 15, 2026
1 day ago
gene
Commentarybatteries
I helped design the original Tesla battery. Here’s how America can lead the world again
By Gene BerdichevskyMay 14, 2026
2 days ago

Most Popular

The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Politics
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
By Jake AngeloMay 12, 2026
4 days ago
Despite having a $165 million net worth, Scarlett Johansson says work-life balance doesn’t exist—and the first step to success is admitting that
Success
Despite having a $165 million net worth, Scarlett Johansson says work-life balance doesn’t exist—and the first step to success is admitting that
By Preston ForeMay 13, 2026
3 days ago
Current price of oil as of May 15, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 15, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 15, 2026
21 hours ago
Nearly 50,000 Lake Tahoe residents have to find a new power source after their energy source looks to redirect lines to data centers
Travel & Leisure
Nearly 50,000 Lake Tahoe residents have to find a new power source after their energy source looks to redirect lines to data centers
By Catherina GioinoMay 12, 2026
4 days ago
The airplane fuel shortage is a myth propagated by airlines who want to cancel unprofitable flights, says private jet CEO
Energy
The airplane fuel shortage is a myth propagated by airlines who want to cancel unprofitable flights, says private jet CEO
By Jim EdwardsMay 14, 2026
2 days ago
Top economist says $39 trillion national debt leaves government worse prepared for recession than ever
Economy
Top economist says $39 trillion national debt leaves government worse prepared for recession than ever
By Eva RoytburgMay 14, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.