Trump administration regulatory delays and barriers threaten 92 gigawatts of announced new electricity supply projects.

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, affecting more than $121 billion in energy investment.

Demand for electricity has been climbing in recent years after two decades of stagnation, driven in part by the expansion of data centers to support the AI boom. BloombergNEF forecasts that data centers will grow substantially in the coming decade, pushing their electricity consumption nearly threefold by 2035.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has required grid operators to offer expedited connections, yet the bottleneck in new generating capacity approaches crisis levels in some regions. The largest U.S. grid—which also hosts the most data centers—has effectively frozen new generating sources for four years, preventing additional supply at a time of rising demand. In response, tech companies are increasingly building their own power plants on-site.

Where new capacity has been added, renewables have dominated. Solar, batteries, and wind represented nearly 90 percent of the record 53 gigawatts 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 "rein in environmentally damaging wind and solar projects." While wind and solar have been the primary targets, energy storage projects have also been canceled, with most permitting problems concentrated in Oregon, Alabama, Maine, Minnesota, and Montana.

Solar projects sited on or near private wetlands face the greatest risk, while wind farms have been scrutinized under airspace regulations. The Trump administration's recent decision to lift protections for 80 percent of U.S. wetlands adds further uncertainty to solar development.

Burgum's order represents a notable departure from his tenure as North Dakota governor, when he oversaw wind power expansion and set a target for the state to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030. As recently as 2024, he highlighted North Dakota's wind resources, which produced one-third of the state's electricity in 2022.