Trump should strive to support innovation in the energy industry, and that'll take more than erecting costly trade barriers.
Heat Exchange MIT Technology Review's guest opinion series, offering expert commentary on legal, political and regulatory issues related to climate change and clean energy. You can read the rest of the pieces here. The current 90-day pause on rolling out most of the administration's so-called "reciprocal" tariffs presents a critical opportunity. Rather than defaulting to broad, blunt tariffs, the administration should use this window to align trade policy with a focused industrial strategy—one aimed at winning the global race to become a manufacturing powerhouse in next-generation energy technologies. By tightly aligning tariff design with US strengths in R&D and recent government investments in the energy innovation lifecycle, the administration can turn a regressive trade posture into a proactive plan for economic growth and geopolitical advantage. The president is right to point out that America is blessed with…