Climate 411

How the Trump administration is obstructing clean energy – and why it raises your costs

A black and white photograph of solar and wind projects is being torn in half to reveal a coal plant overlaid with an upward trend line to reflect rising costs.

Last updated August 20, 2025.

Electricity prices are rising across the U.S. Demand for electricity is going up for the first time in 20 years. And more extreme weather and heat waves are causing blackouts.

Yet instead of expanding access to low-cost, reliable clean power, the Trump administration is making the problem worse. Since Day One, the administration and its allies in Congress have pushed policies that restrict the supply of affordable, homegrown clean energy – creating a self-inflicted rate hike just as the country needs more power.

Wind and solar offer some of the cheapest – and fastest – ways to provide electric power today. In contrast, the cost to build natural gas plants is at a 10-year high and a shortage of turbines is delaying construction, while coal remains the most expensive and dirtiest way to generate power. To put it simply: Blocking cheap, clean energy while doubling down on outdated fossil fuels makes no economic or environmental sense.

The attacks on clean energy will not only hike up our electricity bills, but they will also unleash more pollution in our water and air, kill thousands of jobs and make our electric grid weaker.

How is this happening? Here are major ways the Trump administration is obstructing clean energy: Read More »

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Faster, affordable clean energy? This bipartisan bill delivers

clean energy on federal land

Multiple energy reports all underscore the same finding: The U.S. is going to need more affordable electric power to supply data centers, manufacturing and homes around the country. A lot more of it.

Our country’s vast supplies of wind and solar resources are ready to be tapped to support that demand – from vast windy plains in the Midwest to sun-soaked areas in the Southwest. And these clean energy sources paired with battery storage are cost-effective too. Electricity from wind and solar costs less than electricity from gas and coal. But too often, wind and solar projects get delayed by complex permitting processes that take around four to eight years to complete. Those slow timelines cannot keep pace with America’s growing electricity demands.

The Energy Co-Location Act, introduced by U.S. Senators John Curtis and John Hickenlooper, offers a bright spot for bipartisan energy progress. The bill will bring more reliable and affordable power on the grid faster, by unlocking the potential for renewable energy on federal lands already used for energy purposes.

Here’s what you need to know.

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Building a better grid: The latest steps to deliver reliable, affordable and clean power

Many of us don’t realize how much of our livelihoods depend on a reliable electricity grid, until we lose power in a blackout or outage.

For many communities across the country, that is becoming a more common occurrence as we experience more frequent and severe storms and heat waves worsened by climate change. Just last week, nearly 200,000 people across several midwestern and southern states lost power after a blitz of tornadoes and thunderstorms.

This extreme weather threat is amplified by outdated grid infrastructure and increasing electricity demand.

One essential solution to meeting these challenges – and driving meaningful progress toward a clean energy future – is building a more modern, reliable and clean grid. This is exactly what the Biden administration and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) are doing with a suite of grid-strengthening actions over the last month.

Here’s what you should know about these latest actions and why they matter:

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