Trump didn’t say the words “climate change” during the State of the Union, but it loomed large over his 108-minute speech as he touted his “drill, baby, drill” agenda and derided Joe Biden’s “green new scam”.
Toward the beginning of his address, the president discussed last year’s flooding at Camp Mystic in Texas, saying they were “one of the worst things I’ve ever seen”.
“Nobody’s ever seen anything like it,” Trump said, noting that Scott Ruskan, a US Coast Guard rescue swimmer who helped save 165 people amid the flood, was in attendance at the event, as was an 11-year-old girl who Ruskan rescued.
Climate experts have long warned that torrential downpours like the one that caused the deadly flooding in Texas exemplify the effects of the climate crisis.
“We have added a lot of carbon to the atmosphere, and that extra carbon traps energy in the climate system,” Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University, told the Guardian after the floods. “Because of this extra energy, every weather event we see now carries some influence from climate change.”
Despite the scientific consensus that the climate crisis is real, Trump has repeatedly called it a “hoax”, while working to boost planet-heating fossil fuels. He touted his pro-fossil fuel agenda during the State of the Union.
“American oil production is up by more than 600,000 barrels a day,” he said. “American natural gas production is at an all time high because I kept my promise to drill, baby, drill.”
But data show that Trump’s oil boosterism has not worked out for US fossil-fuel workers.
“Since President Trump took office, the drive to achieve energy dominance has resulted in the loss of 15,000 mining, oil, and natural gas jobs,” Sean O’Leary, a senior researcher at the Appalachia-focused clean energy and jobs think tank Ohio River Valley Institute, wrote on social media, citing data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
As it has worked to increase fossil-fuel production, the Trump administration has also attacked renewable power, rolling back approvals and abruptly pausing leases for offshore wind projects while moving to end or weaken incentives for green power.
Those efforts have resulted in the loss or delay of 172,988 clean energy jobs, an analysis from environmental advocacy nonprofit Climate Power found.
Wind and solar are crucial to efforts to slash planet-warming pollution. They are the cheapest sources of energy generation in the US, report after report show. By blocking solar and wind projects, Trump is decreasing the country’s energy supply at a time when demand is booming due to the expansion of data centers for artificial intelligence, critics say.
Though he promised to halve electricity costs within his first year back in office, the average US household paid nearly 6.7% more for electricity in 2025 than the year before, the Guardian found last month.
“The president claims to be protecting people from skyrocketing bills while in fact he is tearing apart the clean energy infrastructure that would actually help keep electricity affordable,” said Margie Alt, director of the Climate Action Campaign, a pro-environmental policy coalition.
Trump says he has a plan to lower energy bills without addressing these root causes. During his speech, he announced new “ratepayer protection pledges”, which he said are designed to protect Americans from rising electricity costs driven amid booming demand from AI buildout.
“We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs,” he said. “No one’s prices will go up, and in many cases, prices of electricity will go down for communities.”
The president reportedly negotiated these plans with tech giants for them to pay for increased electricity costs in locations where new data centers are being erected.
But green groups were largely unimpressed with Trump’s “ratepayer protection pledges” plan.
“Let’s be honest: big tech isn’t going to do anything for the benefit of anyone but itself,” said Mitch Jones, managing director of policy and litigation at progressive environmental group Food and Water Watch.
Left unchecked, the AI boom could imperil climate goals, particularly because most US data centers are fueled by plant-warming coal, oil and gas. Trump has worked to fast-track permitting for both data centers and fossil fuel plants to power them.
The correct approach, Jones said, would be to place a pause on AI expansion.
“With the Trump administration’s complete unwillingness to hold corporations accountable for any number of harmful impacts on society, it’s imperative we halt new data center construction now,” Jones said.
