Days after the Republican majority in Congress sharply reduced incentives for wind and solar energy projects, President Trump issued a new executive order to set new timeline limits for developers to qualify for tax credits.

“For too long, the Federal Government has forced American taxpayers to subsidize expensive and unreliable energy sources like wind and solar,” states the order issued late Monday. “Reliance on so-called ‘green’ subsidies threatens national security by making the United States dependent on supply chains controlled by foreign adversaries.”

The order comes after Trump on July 4 signed sweeping spending and policy legislation passed by Congress. While eliminating most renewable energy policies implemented by the Biden administration, Congress also acted at the behest of Republican lawmakers to shield some tax credits on projects in their districts under certain conditions.

That offered a few bits of hope to offshore wind industry advocates that some credits might be extended for a limited time. Meanwhile, opponents of specific projects and ardent critics of wind and solar overall had demanded an even harder line, lobbying for last-minute changes.

Trump’s latest order appears to grow from that schism, and now promises to “build upon and strengthen the repeal of, and modifications to, wind, solar, and other ‘green’ energy tax credits in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act; and end taxpayer support for unaffordable and unreliable ‘green’ energy sources and supply chains built in, and controlled by, foreign adversaries.”

In New York and New Jersey, local community activists and commercial fishermen have pressed the Trump administration to again rescind permits for the 810-megawatt Empire Wind turbine array, now under construction near the vessel traffic lanes into New York Harbor. One of their arguments points to developer Equinor’s majority ownership by the Norwegian government, and it’s unclear if Empire Wind could be threatened again.

Among its explicit directions, the executive order calls for the Treasury Department “to strictly enforce the termination of the clean electricity production and investment tax credits under sections 45Y and 48E of the Internal Revenue Code for wind and solar facilities.”

Renewable energy critics had protested that the Senate legislation went too far in granting leeway for projects under construction.

The new order calls for Treasury to be “issuing new and revised guidance… to ensure that policies concerning the ‘beginning of construction’ are not circumvented, including by preventing the artificial acceleration or manipulation of eligibility and by restricting the use of broad safe harbors unless a substantial portion of a subject facility has been built.”