See elsewhere on this page for explainers about the soaring cost of energy.
One big piece is that the lowest hanging fruit, solar and wind projects that are quick to build, and produce the lowest price power, have been “blockaded” by an administration that has much more interest locking in a generation of power and control for their fossil fuel donors, than it does in lowering prices for consumers.
A majority of Trump-coalition voters back solar power, especially if the panels are made in the U.S. and without Chinese materials, polling shared exclusively with Axios shows.
Why it matters: Trump officials are moving against renewables on several fronts, including Interior Department permitting restrictions and the GOP budget law hastening the end of project subsidies.
- But the poll commissioned by U.S. manufacturer First Solar suggests that a big swath of his coalition is partial to the tech.
Driving the news: Fabrizio, Lee & Associates polled what it calls a “GOP+” sample — a mix of Republicans, GOP-leaning independents and Trump voters.
- It found 51% favor utility-scale solar (large plants that generate electricity fed directly into the grid), while 30% oppose it.
The share in favor soars to 70% if the panels are made in domestic factories, using U.S. materials, and have no ties to China.
- 68% agree with the statement: “[W]e need all forms of electricity generation, including utility solar, to be built to lower electricity costs.”
Catch up fast: Tony Fabrizio, a partner in the firm, has been chief pollster for President Trump’s campaigns.
The big picture: “GOP+ voters want America to have energy independence and for their electric bills to be affordable,” a polling memo states.
Meanwhile:
While Mr. Trump’s attacks on offshore wind have been highly visible, his administration has also been hobbling solar and wind energy projects on land by halting or delaying federal approvals that were once routine.
More than 60 large wind and solar farms under development on federal lands, such as Jackalope Wind, are being stymied. But the administration is also holding up hundreds of wind and solar projects on private land that require federal consultations. Many projects are facing potentially fatal delays, according to interviews with more than a dozen energy companies, industry groups and analysts.
The extra layer of scrutiny for wind and solar contrasts with actions by the Trump administration to make it easier and cheaper for companies to produce oil, coal, gas and nuclear power. And it sets the United States apart from other countries that are embracing renewable energy.
In September, the Idaho utility finally canceled its contracts with Jackalope Wind, citing “uncertainties related to the federal permitting process.”
Now, Idaho Power is accelerating plans to install nine engines that burn natural gas. And this week, NextEra Energy, the company behind Jackalope, told The New York Times that it was scrapping the wind farm altogether.
The efforts to delay renewable energy on land could prove even more consequential than the administration’s battles against offshore wind. The five wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean that Mr. Trump is trying to stop would collectively produce up to 5,800 megawatts, roughly enough to power 2.5 million homes. But 73,000 megawatts of solar projects on land are currently at risk from political interference, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, which called Mr. Trump’s policies a “blockade.”
“There’s a real intention to slow these things down,” said David Carroll, chief executive of Engie North America, which develops wind, solar, battery and gas projects.
Mr. Carroll estimated that roughly 40 percent of Engie’s planned renewable projects could be affected by the federal permitting bottleneck, including several wind farms on private land in the Midwest. Wind projects that require federal permits are “nearly impossible” to advance right now, he said.
Most of the wind and solar projects affected by the permitting slowdown were expected to come online in 2027 or later. Without them, companies say, the country could face a shortage of power and ratepayers could see even higher electric bills at a time when affordability has become a national concern.
“Demand from utilities is astronomical,” said Sandhya Ganapathy, chief executive of EDP Renewables North America, a leading wind and solar developer. “But now permitting is becoming much more difficult, which means many projects may never come online or take forever to come online.”
New data on China’s relentless energy installations underscore warnings from Elon Musk and Jensen Huang that the nation’s world-beating power network will deliver a major advantage over the US in the race to dominate artificial intelligence.
Since 2021, China has added more power capacity across all energy technologies than the US has in its history, including 543 gigawatts last year, according to figures released late last month by the country’s National Energy Administration.
China will add more than 3.4 terawatts of electricity generation capacity over the next five years, almost six times as much as the US, BloombergNEF projects under its base-case Economic Transition Scenario. That influx would give the No. 2 economy greater ability to accommodate rising power demand from data centers.
“The limiting factor for AI deployment is fundamentally electrical power,” Musk told BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink in an interview at the World Economic Forum on Jan. 22. “Very soon, maybe even later this year we’ll be producing more chips than we can turn on — except for China,” said Tesla Inc. CEO Musk, whose xAI is building US data centers. “China’s growth in electricity is tremendous.”
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