Throughout 2025, the Trump administration has obstructed the deployment of wind energy through major legislation and executive actions, enacting permitting freezes for both onshore and offshore wind projects in January 2025, issuing stop-work orders for major projects under construction (Empire Wind in April 2025 and Revolution Wind in August 2025, among others), and spearheading the passage of the 2025 budget reconciliation bill (the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” or OBBBA) in July 2025, which accelerated the phase-out of key Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentives for wind and solar energy. Among companies tracked in InfluenceMap’s database—both globally and in the US—corporate support for wind energy was strong in 2025.1 The US Chamber of Commerce (“the Chamber”) and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), two of the largest cross-sector trade associations in the US, each defended wind energy several times in 2025 while also advocating heavily to ensure the passage of the OBBBA.
The OBBBA offered significant benefits for fossil fuels in addition to dampening wind development. The Chamber supported the bill through repeated public communications, a six-figure advertising campaign, direct meetings with policymakers, and letters to Senate leadership. NAM acted similarly, supporting the bill through public communications, joint letters to Congress, and an endorsement on the White House website. The OBBBA is anticipated to slow the addition of new renewable generation to the US grid, impede the creation of thousands of jobs, and increase electricity prices for Americans as demand continues to skyrocket.
At the same time, the organizations specifically defended wind energy on several fronts in 2025.
Across their pro-wind advocacy in 2025, neither association mentioned climate change or the decarbonization benefits of wind energy. Instead, they appear to echo narratives used by the Trump administration on “American energy dominance,” the need to lower electricity prices amid rising demand, and the importance of competition with foreign industry–emphasizing affordability in each instance.
NAM and the Chamber claim to have an “all of the above” approach to energy advocacy. (NAM’s submission to a House of Representatives committee in May 2025 uses this exact phrase, while a blog from the Chamber in September opposes “efforts by the government to pick energy winners and losers”). In practice, this has entailed historical advocacy to maintain a substantial role for fossil fuels in the energy mix alongside occasional support for wind (see NAM and the Chamber’s profiles for full details), a pattern that continued in 2025. Despite their claims that a buildout of all energy sources will address affordability concerns, a May 2024 analysis from the International Energy Agency (IEA) finds that rapid deployment of clean energy is the key factor in ensuring low electricity prices, while volatility in fossil fuel prices often contributes to affordability crises and offsets the cost savings from new wind and solar.
Although the US Chamber represents a broad base of companies from across the economy, previous InfluenceMap research finds that the group’s positions on the energy mix mimic those of major fossil fuel companies and trade groups. In keeping with this pattern, the Chamber directed nearly half of its advocacy to support new fossil fuel production and exploration in 2025. NAM’s advocacy is also largely aligned with the fossil fuel industry, despite its cross-sectoral membership: it consistently advocated for increased fossil fuel exploration, liquefied natural gas exports, and the repeal of regulations to decarbonize the power sector in 2025.
Overall, less than 5% of the groups’ advocacy supported climate policy in 2025, with around 50% dedicated solely to the expansion of fossil fuels. Despite occasionally recognizing the role of wind, NAM and the Chamber’s focus on the expansion of fossil fuels contradicts their stated goal of lowering energy prices.
With skyrocketing electricity demand, clean energy cancellations, volatile fossil fuel markets, and other factors driving energy price increases across the US, many corporate interests may deploy the energy affordability narrative to support their policy goals. The narrative is a cornerstone of fossil fuel industry efforts to obstruct climate policy, and according to past InfluenceMap research, the same pro-fossil fuel groups have relied on affordability claims for over 50 years. More recent InfluenceMap analysis found that affordability became the fossil fuel industry’s “primary narrative” in 2025, surpassing other commonly used fossil fuel narratives.
As fossil fuel-aligned groups and their allies in government leverage the false affordability narrative to protect the role of increasingly expensive oil, coal, and fossil gas in the energy mix, it is critical to debunk misleading claims. Currently, over 90% of new renewable projects are cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives, and the cost of battery storage—once a barrier to high levels of renewable penetration—has dropped drastically in recent years. Many of the NAM and Chamber’s member companies, which hold a clear stake in low-cost electricity, stand to benefit from this trend.
1 According to InfluenceMap’s database, 60% of global advocacy on wind energy in 2025 was supportive, while only 20% of assessed evidence opposed the resource. An additional 20% was neutral or took no clear position.
