The Verge reports:

The US is building more fossil fuel infrastructure than it has in a decade while renewable energy growth slows down, a new report shows.

Electricity demand is also climbing faster than it has in more than a decade with more data centers, factories, and electric vehicles plugging into the grid. Despite those growing demands, the Trump administration has sought to hobble the wind and solar industries in favor of fossil fuels.

America’s energy landscape is already shifting as a result, according to the report published last week by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund and research firm Atlas Public Policy. If all the gas projects in the development pipeline complete construction, they could lock in more pollution and higher electricity prices for decades, the authors warn.

“The U.S. power sector is at a new inflection point, with decisions made today shaping the cost, reliability, and emissions profile of the grid for decades to come,” the report says.

While the US still generates 60 percent of its electricity from fossil fuels, renewables have quickly gained ground. Wind and solar produced more electricity together than coal for the first time in 2024. Solar was the fastest-growing source of new electricity generation that year, accounting for 81 percent of added capacity. Globally, solar has become the cheapest power source in most of the world.

Then Donald Trump stepped into his second term as president with a plan to “drill, baby, drill” for fossil fuels, his preferred power source for energy-hungry data centers. His administration has sought to kill renewable energy projects by issuing stop work orders, blocking permits, and removing tax incentives. We’re still seeing a rush of new solar and wind farms driven by relatively low costs, although many of them make up the last wave of projects that benefited from Biden-era incentives. [Continue reading…]