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In 2017 when Donald Trump entered the White House, the U.S. oil and gas industry was on a tear, with output climbing to record levels, while clean energy sources were still carving out their niche. Now, oil and gas producers are struggling amid weak prices and growing pressure to address climate change, while wind and solar technologies are soaring -- a trend that will assist Biden in making a U-turn in energy policy from the Trump administration's.

"The U.S. for four years attempted to go in the opposite direction, go back in time rather than going forward," said Mark Jones, a political science fellow at Rice University in Houston. "Where we find ourselves in 2021, both globally and where the Democratic Party is, is a much more stringent and demanding request for addressing climate change. Everyone views the future as renewables, not oil and natural gas."

The renewable energy sector has been cheering this week about the clean energy incentives included in the omnibus Congress passed. And it's even more optimistic about the prospects under a Biden administration, given the president-elect's plans for a $2 trillion effort to put the country on a path toward eliminating greenhouse gases from the power grid by 2035 and for the overall economy by 2050.

Though that pledge will face hurdles in Congress, especially if Republicans maintain control of the Senate, Biden can still make moves to benefit the renewables industry that has steadily grown over the last four years -- despite President Donald Trump's trade tariffs, lease hikes and frequent attacks on the industry.

"The realization -- the market's realization, the financial community's realization and the customer's realization -- that we are moving toward the clean energy economy has already happened," said Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, a solar trade group. 

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