How the World’s Largest Electric Company Fell Quiet on Renewable Energy

NextEra Energy, the world’s largest publicly traded electricity company, has systematically erased or downplayed its clean energy messaging since President Donald Trump returned to office, a potent example of the industry’s retreat from environmental positioning during his second term.

NextEra used to bill itself as a global leader in renewable energy production and the energy transition. Now, the company has adopted Trump’s “American energy dominance” language and emphasizes its “diverse” array of electricity sources—prominently, gas—as the president favors fossil fuels and castigates clean energy, Inside Climate News found in a review of NextEra’s securities filings, press releases, financial statements and website archives.

NextEra stopped describing itself as a renewable energy company to regulators last year, and its power development subsidiary overhauled its home page and environmental stewardship page to deemphasize clean energy.

Daniel Tait, who researches electric utilities for the watchdog Energy and Policy Institute, said NextEra’s backtrack is “noteworthy” because of its earlier outspoken support for renewable energy and its 2022 “Real Zero” pledge to eliminate most emissions by 2045.

“It calls into question how serious they are about any claim that they make,” Tait said when he learned of Inside Climate News’ findings.

NextEra did not respond to multiple requests for an interview or written comment.

Dani Marx, a spokesperson for the Edison Electric Institute, an industry association, said electric companies are focused on “doing what’s best for customers.”

“That means developing the right mix of energy resources for each region while keeping costs as affordable as possible,” Marx wrote in an email. “With electricity demand rising to historic levels, an all-of-the-above energy approach is essential to bringing new generation online. NextEra Energy is doing exactly that, investing across a full portfolio to deliver the reliable, affordable power customers depend on.”

The Florida-based company, the largest utility in the world by total market value, distributes power to more than 6 million customers through its subsidiary Florida Power & Light. It is currently seeking to merge with Virginia’s Dominion Energy, which would create a megacompany that would dominate the U.S. energy market.

In its 2024 annual securities filing, NextEra described itself as “one of the largest electric power and energy infrastructure companies in North America and a leader in the renewable energy industry.” A year later, the same section reads simply: NextEra is “one of the largest electric power and energy infrastructure companies in North America.”

The company made similar moves across public-facing messaging, ceasing to call itself a “clean energy company,” which it had done consistently through 2024. It also halved its mentions of renewable projects in press releases, when comparing the first six months of 2024 and 2026, according to an Inside Climate News analysis. 

Meanwhile, NextEra Energy Resources, the company’s subsidiary that develops power generation, overhauled its website last July. In the span of seven days, the homepage went from boldly declaring that “shifting to clean energy isn’t an option, it’s the solution,” to saying it is “building energy infrastructure for America” to “Drive American energy dominance.”

The shift is remarkable for a company that just four years ago declared an “industry-leading” clean energy goal. NextEra’s “Real Zero” pledge committed to eliminating operational emissions by 2045, which executives distinguished from competitors’ net-zero targets by rejecting carbon offsets and carbon capture that allow companies to keep producing greenhouse gases. NextEra’s CEO, John Ketchum, said in March 2025 that the cost to build gas plants has tripled, and renewables are “cheaper and available right now.”

But buried in a report to investors last year, NextEra said it no longer saw a “realistic path” to its 2045 goal. It has invested heavily in natural gas over the past year, and in an April investor call, executives presented renewables, which are faster to develop, as a stopgap to meet surging demand fueled by data centers “until additional gas-fired generation can be built.”

“The company’s pivot to this greater focus on gas actually contradicts their own economic and business analysis,” said Mini Saraswati, senior director for campaign strategy at the Sierra Club.

A New Era for Climate Messaging

NextEra’s new messaging reflects a broader trend of companies backtracking on clean energy commitments and statements in a political environment increasingly hostile to climate action, said Steven Clarke, climate and energy program director for Ceres, which advocates for corporate sustainability.

“They are more reluctant to be outspoken because of the national political climate that they’ve been operating in, and the real fears and concerns about running afoul of the administration for being ambitious on policies, including climate change,” Clarke said.

Still, he said, actions matter more than words, and he remains confident that businesses will maintain emission reductions. Though NextEra delayed its Real Zero commitment, it continues to invest in renewable energy and expects to add 40 to 56 gigawatts of wind and solar generation by 2032, even as it makes long-term commitments to natural gas infrastructure.

Trellis Group, a corporate sustainability analysis and networking group, found in a survey of large companies that 63 percent have scaled back or changed their sustainability-related communications, though most firms have continued their investments. In other words, companies are less public about their environmental actions.

NextEra in particular has spent millions cultivating a relationship with the Trump administration, a strong proponent of natural gas. The company supported Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee and was the only power company to donate to the construction of his planned White House ballroom. 

In March, when NextEra announced that Trump approved its plans to build 10 gigawatts of natural gas generation, Ketchum praised Trump’s “goal of American energy dominance.”

The White House directed a comment request to NextEra.

NextEra has come under scrutiny for shady business practices predating Trump’s second term—including lobbying against rival renewable energy projects, funding dark-money “ghost candidates” to defeat political opponents, surveilling journalists and secretly taking over a local news website.

Pointing to this history, Tait described NextEra as a “political chameleon” that will just “turn around and rebrand again when the political whims turn back or change in some other way.”

A lack of government scrutiny has consequences, he said.

“The risk is probably greater now than it ever has been,” Tait said. “Not just for NextEra, but for other utilities who are probably pulling all sorts of shenanigans because they effectively believe that federal regulators or other decision-makers are either turning a blind eye or don’t care.”