Illinois clean energy companies unfazed by EPA threat.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could face steep cuts under President Donald Trump‘s administration, but clean energy supporters in Illinois say the industry’s strong enough to keep going.

Soon after taking office in late January, Trump ordered the EPA to freeze grants and contracts. His choice to run the EPA, former Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt, is a climate change skeptic and ally of the fossil fuel industry. Further out, reports indicate the White House plans to to cut a quarter of the EPA’s budget.

Although the EPA doesn’t usually provide funding to clean energy companies, its policies can impact their businesses. But despite the president’s public support of the coal industry, clean energy investors and entrepreneurs say they’re not concerned — at least not until they see actual policy changes.

One reason: The development timeline for clean energy innovation is longer than a presidential term. The Clean Energy Trust, a Chicago-based nonprofit that invests in clean energy companies, takes a longer-term view when it chooses which companies to back, said Ian Adams, the organization’s chief of staff. The products companies are working on now may not be in demand for several years, he said.

“We’re looking at larger trends that exist within the energy industry and within the energy regulatory environment, so we’ll see more and more cleaner technologies are coming on the grid,” he said. 

In the context of starting a clean energy business, Adams said potential cutbacks at the EPA are worth paying attention to — but likely not at the top of the list of a new company’s concerns. 

As renewable energy sources such as wind and solar become more cost-effective and coal struggles to compete against lower-cost natural gas, the Clean Energy Trust remains optimistic, said Emily Achler, its director of marketing.

“Not knowing exactly what’s going to happen and how things are going to change … that’s not the ideal business environment to be operating in,” Achler said. “Having said that, there are also all of these other indicators and points of momentum that we don’t think will be easily stopped.” 

Jay Marhoefer, the CEO and founder of Chicago-based energy storage software platform Intelligent Generation, said renewable energy production and storage are now economically viable enough to withstand a lack of federal support for environmental protection. If these changes were happening five years ago, when his company was still a startup, Marhoefer said he would be more concerned.

Intelligent Generation’s customers include private colleges, municipalities and other large entities, he said. Marhoefer said some of his customers have told him they remain committed to renewable energy regardless of the federal government’s approach, as long as the economics make sense. 

“What we know to be true is if federal policy is going in one direction when it comes to climate change and environmental protection, you’re going to see counterweights at the local and state and corporate levels that are going to say, ‘OK, if the federal government’s not going to do it, we’re going to do it,'” he said.

Potential changes at the federal level aren’t good for a company like Intelligent Generation, but Marhoefer said an ability to adapt to what’s coming out of Washington will be the key to success during this period. It’s also important not to rely too much on the federal government, he said.

“If your business model doesn’t work without the help of the government, then you don’t have a viable business,” he said.

Kady McFadden, deputy director of the Illinois chapter of the Sierra Club, said without specific policy proposals from the Trump administration, it’s hard to know how much of an impact his public comments might have on the industry.

She called Trump’s proposed cuts a “full frontal attack on the Environmental Protection Agency and the communities it protects.”

But McFadden also said support for clean energy is widespread and bipartisan, and that she expects its proponents will continue working to build a clean energy economy regardless of who is in office. 

“While I don’t doubt (Trump) is interested in promoting coal and he’s certainly said that, I think it’s going to be hard to make a case against clean energy development,” she said.

aelahi@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @aminamania