French energy group Engie has warned it could switch investment from the US to other countries unless it receives clarity on tariffs, tax credits and the Trump administration’s plans for Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
“You need to know the rules and it’s very difficult to invest if you don’t have the rules,” said chief executive Catherine MacGregor, who met a senior Republican official last week in Washington.
“We are able in the relatively short term to reallocate some of our capital to different parts of the world. If we don’t have clarity for a long time, we may do that.”
The warning follows President Donald Trump’s decision to pause hundreds of billions of dollars of clean energy funds on his first day in office, a move that is forcing companies to review scores of US projects and investments.
Other energy businesses have also warned of a hit to the investment outlook for some projects in the US under Trump.
On Monday, Air Products, a Pennsylvania-based business, shelved a hydrogen project in Massena, New York, and a sustainable aviation fuel project in California.
In recent results, Patrick Pouyanné, chief executive of TotalEnergies, confirmed a large offshore wind project would be “on pause” for the duration of the Trump presidency.
German energy group RWE in November scaled back its US wind investments, saying “risks for offshore wind projects have increased” following the election.
In contrast, however, Spanish energy giant Iberdrola said on Thursday it did not expect to suffer from Trump’s tariff plans or other policies.
At Engie, MacGregor previously praised the Biden administration’s efforts to encourage renewable energy under the IRA, which has supported its wind, solar and battery storage projects.
But Trump has frozen IRA spending, stopped permitting for offshore wind projects and is pausing federal approvals for onshore wind. The prospect of tariffs on trade partners also threatens the energy sector’s tightly linked supply chain.
MacGregor stressed that the company needed “clarity” on the future of the IRA and the impact of tariffs “on some of our key suppliers”, in order to continue to invest.
The company made just 2 per cent of its earnings in North America in 2024 and a large portion of its business continues to involve storage, transport and distribution of natural gas in Europe.
But the region accounted for 16 per cent of renewables earnings and MacGregor said she remains “very positive” about business opportunities there, citing growing energy demand from artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies and the Trump administration’s push to boost US manufacturing.
The electric utility and gas distributor has already accepted that its offshore wind projects will be on hold for the duration of the Trump presidency.
Last week the company withdrew plans to build two large gas power plants in Texas, citing “equipment procurement constraints” among other factors.
However, despite uncertainty in the US, Engie outlined a target on Thursday of 95GW of installed renewable and battery storage capacity by 2030, up slightly from previous guidance.
The renewables industry has warned that Trump’s policy shift threatens to upend US industrial policy, which has attracted more than $500mn in clean energy investment since the IRA was passed in 2022.
Democrats have challenged Trump’s funding freeze and won several federal court rulings, lifting the pause at least temporarily.
But the future of the IRA will ultimately be determined by Republican members of Congress, who would need to vote as a bloc to deliver Trump’s policy of scaling back or repealing the legislation.
The US energy department said it was complying with recent court orders related to funding.
MacGregor has led Engie since 2021 and received the backing of the company’s board to extend her mandate by another four years at the company’s general assembly in April.
On Thursday, the utility company reported 2024 revenue of €73.8bn, down 10.6 per cent on 2023 and below analysts’ estimates, on the back of lower energy demand in Europe, but earnings increased 4 per cent to €15.6bn. Its shares rose 6 per cent in morning trading.
At Iberdrola, which owns the large Avangrid business in the US, executive chair Ignacio Galán said “we expect virtually no impact from the new [Trump] tariffs” because the company sources a lot of materials from within the US and also locks in prices ahead of time.
Galán also indicated that Iberdrola could withstand changes in renewables policy because its focus in the US is now investment in power grids. “Grids do not depend on the federal authorities but on the states, [which] are encouraging us to invest more and more to supply electricity,” he said.
Iberdrola, which counts the US and UK as its key markets, reported a better-than-expected 17 per cent increase in net profit to €5.6bn in 2024.
Additional reporting by Barney Jopson in Madrid
