{"id":415987,"date":"2026-01-17T20:19:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T20:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/415987\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T20:19:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T20:19:24","slug":"22gw-of-renewables-thwarted-or-in-limbo-under-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/415987\/","title":{"rendered":"22GW of renewables thwarted or in limbo under Trump\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The holdups are occurring as the United States teeters on the edge of an electricity crisis<\/a>. Demand is climbing across the nation, causing household utility bills to soar<\/a>, and more power plants are needed to satisfy the surge in AI data centers, factories, and electrified cars and buildings. Large-scale solar and onshore wind projects are among the fastest and lowest-cost ways<\/a> to add power to the grid \u2014 faster than Trump\u2019s preferred path of building new gas-fired power plants or restarting shuttered nuclear reactors.<\/p>\n

Heinrich, the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, cited the gigawatts of stalled projects in a\u00a0Senate floor speech<\/a> earlier this month. He and other Democratic leaders have said that any efforts to pass bipartisan legislation on energy permitting reform are \u200b\u201cdead in the water<\/a>\u201d so long as the Trump administration continues to block development of onshore wind and solar and cancel fully permitted offshore wind\u00a0farms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concern is that we put a\u00a0balanced legislative package together that gives certainty to both traditional [oil and gas] energy and renewables \u2014 but if this administration is going to say yes to all of the fossil projects and create a\u00a0de facto moratorium on all of the renewable and storage projects, then we haven\u2019t accomplished anything,\u201d Heinrich said by\u00a0phone.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, a\u00a0coalition of clean energy organizations sued to overturn the July memo and other actions from Interior and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which issues permits for energy projects near navigable waters. Both the Army Corps and Interior say they\u2019re prioritizing projects<\/a> that generate the most energy per acre, a\u00a0measure that favors coal, oil, and gas and undercuts renewables \u2014 and which has its roots in fossil-fuel industry misinformation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Such actions \u200b\u201carbitrarily and discriminatorily place wind and solar technologies into a\u00a0second-class status compared to other energy sources,\u201d the groups said in a\u00a0statement this week. \u200b\u201cThe Trump administration has choked private developers\u2019 ability to build new and urgently needed energy projects across the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

For solar and storage in particular, nearly 520 proposed projects totaling 117\u00a0GW of capacity<\/a> have yet to receive all the necessary federal, state, and local permits, which puts them at risk of being delayed by the Trump administration, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. The projects represent half of the country\u2019s new planned power capacity.<\/p>\n

Many developers are simply receiving radio silence from agencies whose approval or advice they need, said Ben Norris, SEIA\u2019s vice president of regulatory affairs, who likened the agencies\u2019 actions to a \u200b\u201cblockade on solar permits.\u201d Fung noted one mundane but significant effect of Interior\u2019s memo: Wind and solar developers are now excluded from using an online government planning tool<\/a> that helps streamline environmental reviews, a\u00a0move that creates additional costs and complexity for companies.<\/p>\n

The delays come as developers are racing to qualify<\/a> for federal tax credits under the newly shortened timelines. Wind and solar installations must either start construction this summer or be operating by the end of 2027 to access incentives. \u200b\u201cTime is really of the essence for many of these projects,\u201d Norris said. In the absence of Congress passing a\u00a0permitting-reform bill, he added, the Trump administration could simply remove many of the roadblocks it created by revoking its memos and other actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they were really serious about affordability and addressing power bills, they could take these steps today,\u201d he\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

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