Renewables were supposed to take over the grid. Instead they’re falling short.
Despite generous tax credits, red tape has slowed wind and solar.
January 22, 2025
By Shannon Osaka
For years, renewable energy proponents have hoped to build a U.S. electric grid powered by wind, solar, geothermal and — to a lesser extent — nuclear power, with carbon-free energy surging into homes and businesses across the country. When President Joe Biden in 2022 signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which slashed the cost of building renewables, that dream seemed likely to become a reality.
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But now, renewable developers say that the new technologies are stymied by complicated local and federal regulations, a long wait to connect to the electricity grid, and community opposition. Experts once hoped that by the end of the decade the United States could generate up to 80 percent of its power with clean power, and Biden set it as a national goal. Now, some wonder if the country will be able to reach even 60 percent.
That means that even as renewables continue to break records, the Biden administration departs with the nation offtrack from its climate target of cutting emissions 50 to 52 percent by 2030. And as President Donald Trump takes the reins, threatening tariffs and halting new permitting for wind, the country is drifting further away from an all-renewable future.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/01/22/renewable-energy-goals-regulations-politics/
