Archinect - News

Biden administration restores stricter environmental review process for federal projects formerly pulled back by Trump

2022-04-28T15:22:00-04:00

The Biden administration on April 19 restored key regulations in the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires review of federal projects to assess their likely impacts on climate change and nearby communities. The changes to the NEPA rules will go into effect in late May, and could mean proposed infrastructure like highways, pipelines and railways take more time to get approved.

This move reverses changes made by the Trump administration, which loosened the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 2020 in order to accelerate projects by shortening the time used to gather environmental information and community input.

According to Construction Dive, construction industry groups, who have long decried the NEPA process, say that the new rules will increase costs for contractors and delay projects enabled by the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. On the other hand, climate advocates and state transportation officials have welcomed the changes, claiming that they would provide certainty to infrastructure projects.

In addition, according to White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory, the return to a more rigorous environmental review will actually speed up project completion as those approved will not be as susceptible to legal challenges. The new NEPA changes grant more flexibility to federal agencies to alter their enviro...

White House wants to use empty commercial space for affordable housing

2020-07-02T12:23:00-04:00

President Donald Trump’s administration is looking at ways to convert a glut of commercial real estate resulting from the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing lockdowns, into affordable housing, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said Wednesday.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson gave remarks on the unlikeliness of things going back to how they were before the pandemic, citing the greater number of people that will work from home in the future. As a result of that new reality, Carson said, according to Bloomberg, "That's going to free up a lot of commercial space, which can be converted to affordable housing to take some of the pressure off."

The HUD Secretary encouraged city officials and local councils to begin pursuing projects in this area, stating that the federal government would provide support to help make moves in this direction occur.

Border wall planning unfazed by coronavirus threat

2020-03-30T13:51:00-04:00

The United States Army Corps of Engineers this week issued Southwest Valley Constructors a contract modification worth $524 million for design-build services on a barrier wall replacement project in Tucson, Arizona, at the border between the U.S. and Mexico. The change brings Southwest's contract amount for the project to almost $1.2 billion when combined with the May 2019 initial contract's award of $646 million for the same project.

While construction of all non-essential projects in several US states has been ordered to stop to contain the spread of COVID-19, planning of fortification elements along the US-Mexican border near Tucson, Arizona is going ahead with full steam, as Construction Dive reports.

How does the recent coronavirus FMLA bill affect the architecture industry?

2020-03-20T15:31:00-04:00

President Donald Trump signed an emergency bill Wednesday to expand family and medical leave as well as guarantee paid sick leave for certain U.S. workers... The bill allows the Secretary of Labor to exempt employers with fewer than 50 employees from the emergency FMLA leave requirement, "when the imposition of such requirements would jeopardize the viability of the business as a going concern."

According to HR Dive, The U.S. Senate passed the bill, titled the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, by a 90-8 vote earlier in the day. It was first passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 14, and a revised version passed Tuesday. The bill will take effect starting April 2nd and end December 31st of this year. According to the Washington Post, the new sick leave law only applies to employers with more than 50 and fewer than 500 employees.

US Pentagon: Iranian cultural sites will not be bombed

2020-01-07T12:50:00-05:00

The United States Pentagon is working to distance itself from a series of statements made US President Donald Trump threatening to target Iranian cultural sites were military conflict to break out between the two nations.

According to The Associated Press, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the US will “follow the laws of armed conflict” in the event of military conflict with Iran, adding that when asked to clarify whether the department's plan explicitly rules out targeting cultural sites, Esper added, “That’s the laws of armed conflict.”

The threats initially made by the president were widely received as indications that the United States was willing to perpetuate war crimes against the country's cultural heritage, in violation of the Geneva Convention Protocol that prohibits acts of hostility against these types of sites. The statements drew comparisons around the globe to acts of cultural terrorism enacted by the Taliban against the Bamyan Buddahs, in Afghanistan, for example, a...

A look at some of the Iranian cultural sites that Trump could be threatening

2020-01-06T15:22:00-05:00

Tensions in the Middle East keep escalating after the U.S. President followed his drone assassination of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani with a tweet that publicly threatens to strike dozens of target sites in Iran, including "important" cultural sites, if the country dared to retaliate.

"Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD," threatens one passage of Trump's vague January 4th Twitter post which, as lawyer and specialist in historic preservation, Sara C. Bronin, pointed out in the Los Angeles Times, "amounts to an announcement of an intention to commit war crimes."

Ruins of the Tachara at Persepolis, one of Iran's most important UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Photo: Wikimedia Commons u...

America exits Paris Agreement, doubles down on resilience and disaster preparedness

2019-11-05T08:00:00-05:00

The Trump administration has formally notified the United Nations that the U.S. is withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. The withdrawal will be complete this time next year, after a one-year waiting period has elapsed. "We will continue to work with our global partners to enhance resilience to the impacts of climate change and prepare for and respond to natural disasters," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Monday.

Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists told NPR, “The reality is, to really deliver on our climate goals, we do need strong federal action," adding, "The unfortunate reality is U.S. carbon emissions actually rose last year."

Federal government shows interest in addressing California's homelessness crisis

2019-09-12T12:30:00-04:00

The Trump administration officials who came to town to study homelessness spent Monday and Tuesday meeting with officials from Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office, checking out the Jordan Downs public housing in Watts and touring the long-entrenched epicenter of the crisis, skid row. There was even a trek to Pomona. An administration official said the purpose was to gather information so that President Trump could begin to develop a plan to address the “tragedy.”

The tour comes as the Trump Administration's controversial Opportunity Zones program designed to funnel investment to underserved areas gains steam and as the administration potentially looks to rewrite "regulatory barriers" for affordable housing projects nationwide.

According to The Los Angeles Times, President Trump told Fox News in July, “You take a look at what’s going on with San Francisco, it’s terrible. So we’re looking at it very seriously. We may intercede. We may do something to get that whole thing cleaned up. It’s inappropriate."

Trump Administration poised to reshape government's role in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

2019-08-30T19:15:00-04:00

The Trump administration and lawmakers in both parties generally don’t believe the government should be running in effect two enormous financial companies. Administration officials want to shrink the government’s involvement and return housing finance to a privately run system.

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at how (and why) the Trump Administration is looking to change the federal government's role in overseeing aspects of the nation's mortgage securities market.

According to WSJ, the two government-sponsored entities secure half of the nation’s $10 trillion mortgage market.

It's true: Trump's tax cuts gutted LIHTC funding

2019-07-18T14:29:00-04:00

As a result of reduced tax revenue from the 2017 corporate tax cuts enacted by President Donald Trump, the development of at least 15,000 affordable housing units has been either delayed or eliminated entirely, The Sacramento Bee reports.

The reason? A significant portion of affordable housing development happens as a result of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), a program that typically enjoys bipartisan support because it provides tax credits to private companies that fund low-income housing development. The Sacramento Bee reports, however, that as a result of the tax cuts, corporate tax rates dropped by 40-percent, shriveling the total available pool of funds available to fund initiatives like the LIHTC.

As a result, California built only 19,000 affordable homes with the funding in 2018, a 23-percent drop from 2016.

Design & the trade war: American architecture firms on the challenges of doing business in China

2019-07-10T08:30:00-04:00

Trade often gets shorthanded to its most tangible form, the flow of goods from one country to another. But the exchange of services is also part of the equation, with building design offering a high-demand example in China amid an extended economic boom there.

Dallas News correspondent Tom Benning highlights the business setbacks two major U.S.-based architecture firms — HKS and CallisonRTKL — experienced while operating in China: from breach of contract, to intellectually property theft, all the way to corporate imposture, these all-too-common challenges are also part of the ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China, which, as HKS chairman emeritus Ralph Hawkins calls it, "such a growing economy, I don't think any firm can ignore it."

US withdrawal from UNESCO, based on perceived anti-Israel bias, becomes official

2019-01-02T14:02:00-05:00

Made official yesterday at the beginning of the new year, the US has now withdrawn from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Along with Israel, the two countries first announced that they would be leaving the organization in October of 2017, citing anti-Israel bias.

UNESCO—the UN agency that oversees the preservation and protection of culture, communities and architecture—has been at odds with both countries since granting full membership to Palestine in 2011. Due to a 15-year-old amendment that mandates a complete financial cutoff to any United Nations agency that accepts Palestine as a full member, the US stopped funding the organization it helped cofound after World War II.

Since, UNESCO has remained critical of Israeli occupation in the West Bank and more recently, controversially listed the hotly contested core of Hebron as a Palestinian World Heritage site. In a tweet celebrating the United States' official withdrawal, former USUN Ambassador ...

EPA regulation reform opens the door to new asbestos use in manufacturing, and architects are angry

2018-08-08T14:44:00-04:00

According to Fast Company, the Environmental Protection Agency is attempting to make the use of asbestos in manufacturing much easier. In June, under Scott Pruitt's leadership, the agency proposed the Significant New Use Rule (SNUR)—open for comment until August 10—that would allow for new uses of asbestos-containing products on a case by case basis.

Although banned in more than 55 countries, the United State has left use of the dangerous carcinogen open, choosing instead to heavily restrict and regulate the fibrous mineral. Despite efforts under the 1973 Clean Air Act and the 1989 Asbestos Ban and Phase Out Rule—the latter of which was overturned in 1991—asbestos, today, is still allowed in hundreds of consumer goods as long as it accounts for less than one percent of the product.

In addition to SNUR, the EPA also announced it will no longer review exposures from abandoned uses of asbestos. During the Obama Administration, under an amendment to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Ac...

President Trump involved in revamping the FBI headquarters in DC

2018-08-02T17:37:00-04:00

Trump is obsessed with the FBI building. For months now, in meetings with White House officials and Senate appropriators intended to discuss big-picture spending priorities, the president rants about the graceless J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown Washington, D.C.

President Trump has reportedly taken an interest in the FBI headquarters J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown DC, overseeing every detail of the project. While he recognizes the value of the property, the president is not a fan of brutalism. Trump complained, "Even the building is terrible... It's one of the brutalist-type buildings, you know, brutalist architecture. Honestly, I think it's one of the ugliest buildings in the city."

US Embassy in Jerusalem will cost at least $20M more than Trump's $250,000 bargain estimate

2018-07-19T15:39:00-04:00

President Donald Trump boasted earlier this year that the US would spend only $200,000 to $300,000 on a new US Embassy in Jerusalem, but it seems the project will cost nearly $20 million more than that estimate. [...] The US spent just under $400,000 on modifications to the consular facility that allowed it to open as the US Embassy in May, but the State Department told CNN at the time that it planned "for construction of a new extension [...] as well as for additional security enhancements"

Back in March, the 'Builder in Chief' promised that the highly controversial new United States Embassy in Jerusalem would have to be built "very quickly and very inexpensively" at a bargain price tag of around $250,000. According to documents made public this month, the State Department however recently awarded a $21.2 million contract to the firm Desbuild Limak D&K to design and build an extension and compound security upgrades to the former consular building in Jerusalem's Arnona neighborhood—nearly 100 times the original estimate.

Fair Housing Act ruling now vulnerable with Justice Kennedy’s retirement

2018-06-28T15:49:00-04:00

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the most important decision on fair housing in a generation. He’ll almost certainly get to see it overturned in his lifetime. When Kennedy announced his long-rumored retirement on Wednesday, he shined a spotlight on the tenuous political balance of the U.S. Supreme Court. Famously a swing vote, Kennedy sided with the court’s four liberal justices on defining decisions on reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, the death penalty, and other hot-button social issues.

The "disparate impact" ruling of the Fair Housing Act is now being reconsidered by HUD. This could lead to the department repealing altogether, despite the fact that the Supreme Court already affirmed its constitutionality. Justice Kennedy's legacy of further integrating society is vulnerable to be overruled under Trump.

Construction equipment manufacturers 'extremely disappointed' with Trump's tariffs

2018-06-18T14:33:00-04:00

The American Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) has criticised the Trump Administration over the introduction of 25% tariffs on $50bn of Chinese imports. Chinese goods affected include types of construction and agricultural equipment. [...] Since Trump’s trade announcement on Friday, China has said it will impose a similar 25% tariff, also worth $50bn.

"We’re extremely disappointed with the Trump administration’s decision to move forward with these harmful tariffs," said Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) President Dennis Slater in a statement last Friday. "This move jeopardizes many of the 1.3 million good-paying manufacturing jobs our industry supports. The expected retaliatory actions by China also raise costs for equipment manufacturers that rely on a vast supply chain around the world, further eroding the benefits of the recent tax reform. We will continue to fight to end these tariffs immediately."

The latest round of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on a variety of goods imported from China comes on the heels of steel and aluminum tariffs that went into effect on March 23, 2018.

Need an explainer on how the 25% steel tariff could affect the construction cost of your architectural project? Nick Butcher, Cost/Risk Group Managing Director at MGAC, put it into context for us.

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Trump considers tent cities to house unaccompanied migrant children

2018-06-13T19:29:00-04:00

The Trump administration is looking to build tent cities at military posts around Texas to shelter the increasing number of unaccompanied migrant children being held in detention. The Department of Health and Human Services will visit Fort Bliss, a sprawling Army base near El Paso in the coming weeks to look at a parcel of land where the administration is considering building a tent city to hold between 1,000 and 5,000 children...

Over 11,200 migrant children are held without a parent or guardian by The Office of Refugee Resettlement at HHS who oversees around 100 shelters. As these shelters fill up with children separated from their parents, the Trump administration considers building tent cities to accommodate this rapidly increasing population who await processing.

Trump's design feedback on border wall prototypes: "We have to have a see-through wall"

2018-03-13T18:40:00-04:00

President Donald Trump took a firsthand look today at the eight massive border wall prototypes that he had commissioned in San Diego for the “big, beautiful wall” he wants to build along the Southwest border, favoring a mixture of see-through capability topped with rounded concrete to make it impassable by climbers.

It's been a busy Tuesday morning for Donald Trump today: after firing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson via a 5:44 AM Tweet, he traveled to San Diego to personally inspect the 8 border wall prototypes that had been erected last fall mere yards away from the actual U.S. border with Mexico.

One of the four "other materials" prototypes. Image: U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Upon visiting the 30-foot-tall structures, Trump's initial design feedback seemed to strongly favor the four non-concrete "other materials" prototypes over the solid, opaque versions: "You have to have see-through," he said. "You have to know what's on the other side of the wall." Trump gave more specifics, adding: "You could be two feet from a criminal cartel, and you don't even know they’re there."

Another "other materials" prototype. Image: U.S. Customs and Border Protection

In an unexpected, almost admiring tone, Donald Trump praised the athletic abilities of immigrants trying to enter the United States, sayi...

While Trump confirms steel & aluminum tariffs, new report predicts loss of 28,000 construction jobs

2018-03-08T19:48:00-05:00

The US construction industry may lose more than 28,000 jobs if Donald Trump’s plan to raise tariffs on imported steel and aluminium goes ahead, a pro-free trade think tank has warned. [...] While Trump claims tariffs would create jobs in America’s steel and aluminium sectors, a Washington, DC, thinktank, Trade Partnership, warned that such a policy would “reverberate throughout” the economy, costing more jobs than it would gain as it pushed up the cost of the metals.

Unswayed by warnings from top economists, industry groups, and members of his own party, Donald Trump today signed two tariff proclamations at the White House that will erect 25% and 10% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports respectively.

While the administration claims that the import tariffs will protect the domestic iron and steel sectors and create thousands of jobs, a new report calculates that this move would actually destroy 179,334 jobs in other sectors—including 28,313 in construction—resulting in a net job loss of nearly 146,000 (not taking into account any potential trade retaliation against U.S. exports; only of the tariffs themselves). "More than five jobs would be lost for every one gained," the report estimates.

AIA components in border states with Mexico mobilize opposition to the Border Wall

2018-03-01T09:32:00-05:00

The proposed $25 billion wall along the US/Mexico border raises questions that have proven divisive to society. [...] In 2017 and 2018, AIA state components and chapters in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas wrote resolutions and letters with the support of their boards of directors opposing a border wall and questioning its cost-benefit relative to infrastructure projects all over the country that they deem higher-priority.

AIA state components and chapters in each of the four states bordering Mexico—Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas—are organizing their opposition to Trump's border wall proposal and have passed formal resolutions.

"Robert Miller, AIA, 2018 president of AIA Arizona, led the charge in drafting a template articulating his component’s concerns, which he shared with AIA chapters in Arizona and, ultimately, components in Texas, California, and New Mexico," writes Katherine Flynn for the AIA. "Keeping the AIA Code of Ethics at the forefront, Miller says, helped him conceptualize the statement as something that members could support outside the context of their own partisan views."

Below are the AIA State Components’ statements regarding the proposed border wall:

AIA New Mexico

Texas Society of Architects

AIA California Council

AIA Arizona

Here are four AIA Local Chapters’ statements regarding the proposed border wall:

Austin in favor of boycotting companies involved in Trump's border wall

2018-02-05T12:35:00-05:00

In a 10-1 vote, the Austin City Council took the first step toward a boycott of any company that designs, builds or finances President Donald Trump’s $25 billion proposed border wall between Texas and Mexico. [...] Four companies already have been tapped to design and build wall prototypes, including Texas-based Sterling Construction Company, Inc.

The Texas state capital is just the latest of several local and state governments having either passed or proposed legislation that would ban companies involved in designing, building, or financing Donald Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico from being considered for other public contracts.

"Accidental minimalism": An architecture critic's take on the Trump border wall

2018-01-03T15:48:00-05:00

The slabs in front of me seemed at once the most and least architectural objects I’d ever seen. They were banal and startling, full and empty of meaning. Here were the techniques of Land Art, medieval construction, marketing and promotion, architectural exhibition and the new nativism rolled uncomfortably if somehow inevitably into one.

LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne takes a trip down to the U.S.-Mexican border in San Diego to attempt the challenge of critiquing Trump's border wall prototypes, "alternating bands of substance and absence, aspiration and impossibility".

Image: U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Trump Administration terminates Community Resilience Panel that prepared cities for climate shock

2017-12-05T13:31:00-05:00

The Community Resilience Panel for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems was created by the Obama administration in 2015 within the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. Its chairman, Jesse Keenan, told members at a meeting Monday that its charter was being dissolved and that meeting would be its last.

The Trump administration is pulling the plug on the Community Resilience Panel for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems—a group created in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy that helped local officials prepare for extreme weather and other natural disasters. The multi-agency organization, comprised of representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, among other federal departments, guided municipal governments and local groups to improve buildings, communications, energy systems and transportation in response to climate threats.

The two-year-old panel was the "federal government's primary external engagement for resilience in the built environment," said the panel's chairman Jesse Keenan. It is yet another federal climate-related body that has been canned by the current administration. Just back in August, the President disbanded a 15-person advisory committee that helped communicate scientific climate change findings to businesses ...

The AIA responds to U.S. Congress tax reform bills: "You're making a terrible mistake"

2017-12-04T16:12:00-05:00

Following recent developments the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made in various versions in both the House and the Senate, the American Institute of Architects announced that it would lobby aggressively against "significant inequities" the legislation currently represents.

Back in September, the AIA already warned about earlier tax reform proposals and called for caution.

AIA 2017 President Thomas Vonier, FAIA now issued a new statement, alarming that with the current legislation "Congress would be making a terrible mistake":

By weakening the Historic Tax Credits, Congress and the Administration will hurt historic rehabilitation projects all across the country - something to which architects have been committed for decades. Since 1976, the HTCs have generated some $132 billion in private investment, involving nearly 43,000 projects. They are fundamental to maintaining America's architectural heritage.

Unfortunately, both bills for some reason continue to exclude architects and other small ...

Trump Tower is blocking off the public from promised public spaces on site

2017-11-28T18:53:00-05:00

Otherwise known as POPS or POPOS, pseudo-public space is often offered up by developers in exchange for the city giving them permission to add more floors or density than the current zoning allows for. An incentive pioneered in NYC's 1961 zoning ordinance revision, today, there are more than 500 spaces in the city legally reserved for public use on privately owned and managed real estate. One of these is the President's gilded Trump Tower.

In the late 1970s, the billionaire real estate mogul made a deal with the city to add restrooms, two upper-level public gardens, and an atrium with a 22-foot long stone bench so he could build 20 more floors onto the-then 38-story building. Shortly after the building's completion, the promised bench, in Trump fashion, was removed leading to a 30-year scandal resulting in multiple fines including one for $10,000 issued by the Department of Buildings. Making matters all the more insulting, the bench's place went to a kiosk hawking the man's self-pro...

Facing backlash, companies building Trump's wall prototype seek protections

2017-11-06T20:02:00-05:00

The prototypes for Donald Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico have been completed, and the six participating companies, whose names have been publicly released, are beginning to face some serious pushback.

Since the bidding process began, companies vying for the construction contract have received nonstop calls and criticism, been the site of protests, have received countless death threats, and according to one company, have even had their tractors stolen. Accused of betraying their own community, Hispanic-owned construction firms participating in the bidding process have faced the most backlash.

Security work along the border has always been contentious and companies that have worked on the border fence as well as related roads and lighting have always experienced various levels of harassment. However, things are more charged nowadays.

Beyond public criticism, companies competing to bid Trump's wall are facing legislative opposition on both the local and state level. Berkeley...

Trump border wall prototypes completed, prepare for sledgehammer testing

2017-10-30T14:23:00-04:00

[...] prototypes for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico have been completed and will be subjected to punishment to test their mettle — by workers wielding sledgehammers, torches, pickaxes and battery-operated tools. The testing lasting up to two months could lead to officials concluding that elements of several designs should be merged to create effective walls [...]. That raises the possibility of no winner or winners.

The six companies that were awarded contracts to build prototypes of Trump's border wall with Mexico earlier this year have completed their full-scale models on a site near San Diego and will see their creations undergo rigorous testing for nonclimbability, nonunderdiggability, and resistance to tools like sledgehammers and pickaxes (no word on battering rams or poisoned arrows).

While funding for the lofty idea of equipping all 1,954 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border with 30-foot-tall fortifications is still up in the air, the contractors erecting the selected prototypes were awarded between $300,000 and $500,000 for each model.

Here are a few of the prototype designs — some cast in concrete and some built of other materials to allow border patrol agents to peek through the wall into Mexico and prevent passersby on the northern side from being hit on the head by large sacks of drugs that reportedly keep flying over the wall.

All images via U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

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UNESCO withdrawal could affect Detroit's 'City of Design' designation

2017-10-16T14:57:00-04:00

Detroit was the first North American city to obtain such a designation, which joined it to UNESCO's Creative Cities Network — a group 22 international cities whose aim is "to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development.

Earlier this week, president Trump announced the U.S's withdrawal from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias and mounting arrears. The decision could affect Detroit's 'City of Design' designation, earlier awarded to the Detroit Creative Corridor, a non-profit initiative to strengthen Detroit's creative economy.

US solar energy is blooming in Trump states

2017-10-13T14:03:00-04:00

The 10 fastest-growing U.S. solar markets between the second quarters of 2016 and 2017 were Western, Midwestern or Southern states that voted for Trump, with Alabama and Mississippi topping the list. And solar firms are ramping up investments in these regions, signaling their faith that key renewable energy incentives will remain in place for years to come.

Despite Trump's disbelief in solar power, the sector is booming in his partisan states. The growth of clean energy, particularly in the regions that showed overwhelming support for Trump, greatly undermines the president's goal of boosting the coal industry.