Loading dispatches...
← Return to NewsroomTechnology
Trump administration threatens 92 GW of new electricity supply with red tape
Breaking
One casualty every 23 minutes: Civilians fatalities mount as Ukraine war intensifies
Permitting delays pushed by the Trump administration threaten to derail 92 gigawatts of clean power, even as electricity demand from AI data centers skyrockets. Already, permitting changes and federal funding withdrawals have led to the cancellation of 7 gigawatts of generating capacity on federal land in 2025, according to a new study from consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. The additional scrutiny could cancel another 12 gigawatts on federal land and 80 gigawatts on private property. The federal challenges affect more than $121 billion in investment in the energy space, the report noted. Demand for electricity has been climbing in recent years after two decades of zero growth, driven in part by the expansion of data centers to feed the AI boom. Data centers are expected to grow in number and scale in the coming decade, according to market forecasters at BloombergNEF, which in turn pushes up their electricity use nearly threefold by 2035. Meanwhile, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is requiring grid operators to offer a fast lane for grid connections, though it has done little to address the bottleneck in new generating capacity, which is close to crisis proportions in some regions. In the largest grid in the U.S., which also hosts the most data centers, grid operators spent the last four years preventing new generating sources from connecting, effectively freezing supply at a time of rising demand. No wonder the general public is unhappy, and tech companies are forging their own paths by building their own power plants on site. Where the U.S. has been able to add new power plants, renewables have been the largest contributor. Solar, batteries, and wind represented nearly 90% of the record 53 GW of new generating capacity added in 2025. The increased permitting friction stems from an August 2025 order from Doug Burgum, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, which sought to “reign in environmentally damaging wind and solar projects.” While wind and solar have been the main targets, energy storage projects have been canceled, too, the Wood Mackenzie report found. Most of the permitting woes are concentrated in Oregon, Alabama, Maine, Minnesota, and Montana. Solar projects sited on or near private wetlands appear to be most at risk, while wind farms have been scrutinized under airspace regulations. It’s unclear how solar projects will be affected in the coming years given the Trump administration’s recent decision to lift protections for 80% of U.S. wetlands. Burgum’s order is a marked shift from his previous tenure as governor of North Dakota, during which he oversaw an expansion of wind power within the state and set a target for it to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030. As recently as 2024, he was boasting about North Dakota’s rich wind resources, which produced a third of the state’s electricity in 2022. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor. De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College. You can contact or verify outreach from Tim by emailing . View Bio
Europe is in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave, and the grid is being pushed to its limits as people turn to fans and air-conditioning to try to stay cool. Some power plants won’t be online to help handle the load. On June 23, France saw its hottest day since record-keeping began in 1947. Temperatures climbed to over 44 °C (111 °F), and overnight temperatures remained unusually high. This prolonged hot weather warmed up the water in some rivers across the country, a problem for the many nuclear plants that rely on those bodies of water for cooling. One reactor has already shut down, and others are being ramped down or will see limitations later in the week. Unit two at the Golfech nuclear power plant in southern France shut down at about 11:45 p.m. on June 22 when the river used to cool the plant got too hot. The move was a precautionary measure, according to Brid Nelligan, a spokesperson for EDF, the plant’s owner and operator. The power plant takes in water from the Garonne River and then returns most of it to the river at slightly higher temperatures after using it to cool equipment. French regulations limit the temperature of that return stream, so the warm water (it was expected to reach 28 °C, or around 82 °F) forced the operator to shut down the plant. EDF, which operates France’s entire nuclear fleet, is also limiting the output of other reactors across the country—one reactor at the Nogent-sur-Seine power plant was ramped down as of Tuesday, and more will follow later in the week, Nelligan says. Extreme heat has affected France’s nuclear industry before. At least seven gigawatts’ worth of nuclear energy was forced to shut down across the country during a heat wave in July 2025, according to data from Ember Energy. That’s more than the entire grid of Ireland. This time, power plant outages and limitations aren’t expected to be drastic enough to affect the ability to meet demand in France, according to RTE, operator of the national electric grid. Nuclear power has made most of the headlines during this heat wave, but other forms of electricity generation face similar challenges. Hydropower plants frequently run into problems when dry conditions lower the amount of water available to generate energy and force them to decrease or shut off operations. In the first five months of 2025, high temperatures and low water conditions cut hydropower supplies in Europe by 13% compared with the year before. Even established coal and natural-gas plants can be challenged by high temperatures. Hot weather can stress equipment and limit the efficiency of cooling towers. Five gas plants across the UK have reported output reductions due to the conditions, cutting a total of about 2.5 gigawatts from the power supply. Increased demand, largely driven by cooling, is the main factor stressing Europe’s power grid, says Jean-Paul Harreman, director of Montel, an energy intelligence provider, via email. Even countries that haven’t historically relied much on cooling technologies are turning to them now—the number of UK homes that use air-conditioning has roughly doubled since 2022. Around the world, the challenges heat presents for the grid are only expected to get worse as climate change brings more frequent and intense heat waves. Globally, energy use for cooling is set to double by 2050 relative to 2023 levels, according to the International Energy Agency. “Utilities can adapt by planning for summer peaks, making cooling demand more flexible, reinforcing grids for high temperatures, deploying batteries and demand response, and climate-proofing power plants’ cooling systems,” says Simone Tagliapietra, senior fellow at Bruegel, an economic and policy think tank, via email. But those changes could be expensive. Earlier this year, EDF shared a climate-change vulnerability assessment for its business, including nuclear and hydropower operations across France. Upgrades are expected to cost about €600 million per year (about $680
Discussion (0)