The biggest obstacle to the expansion of renewable energy is not Donald Trump. It’s the need for improvements to the U.S. electric grid.

Connecting renewable energy sources to the grid is a lengthy and expensive process. Right now, a whopping 2,600 gigawatts of energy projects — twice the nation’s total generation capacity — sit in the “interconnection queue,” where applicants await approval to hook up to the grid.

Almost all of these projects are solar, wind or battery storage. Delivering all that clean electricity to our homes will require modernizing and expanding the nation’s aging grid infrastructure.

Building this new infrastructure is more important than ever. After years of flat growth, the United States is experiencing a surge in electricity demand. The International Energy Agency estimates that U.S. electricity demand will increase by 25% from 2023-2035. Data center electricity demand for AI could triple by 2028.

Democrats in Congress have enacted reforms to streamline the process of connecting to the grid. But with climate change denier Trump in office, Republicans will likely seek to rewrite grid reforms in favor of fossil fuels.

Last May, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Order 1920, which mandates long-term regional planning to create cost-effective transmission solutions. But in November, under fire from Republican states, FERC amended the order to expand the role of state regulators in the planning and cost allocation process.

Even this concession was not enough to satisfy Republicans. Just a few weeks after amendment to Order 1920, Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee lambasted FERC’s reform for “socializing” the costs of the Democrats’ “environmental agenda.” Falsely claiming that renewables reduce reliability, Republicans ignore the benefits of expanding transmission, including reduced likelihood of power loss, increased capacity and lower production costs.

The GOP vision for the nation’s energy future is laid out in Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term. Written by the Trump-appointed former FERC commissioner Bernard McNamee, the energy-related section of the document proposes radical measures that would revalue power markets in favor of fossil fuels.

In December, Republicans in Congress helped kill the Energy Permitting Reform Act and with it the chance to implement interregional grid planning. To the chagrin of climate and environmental groups, the act contained a plethora of handouts to fossil fuel companies, but Republicans tanked the negotiations anyways, believing they can secure a sweeter deal next year. The recent party divisiveness over budget funding shows that might not be so easy.

Ironically, more solar and wind power means lower rates for consumers — exactly what Republicans claim they want. The volatility of oil and gas markets, the uncompetitiveness of coal and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events driven by emissions from fossil fuels have been the leading cause of rising energy prices. And by expanding transmission capacity, greater access to greater geographic and resource diversity in the grid enables operators to draw on a wider array of sources to keep the lights on.

Moreover, when Republicans rail against Democrats for pursuing clean energy alternatives, they are opposing the politically preferred generation of the American people who widely support renewable energy. Agencies like FERC are responding to voter preference and prevailing market trends — and to the irritation of Republican lawmakers and regulators, those trends are (and have been) blowing in the direction of renewables.

Knocked from the driver’s seat, Democrats will have to defend existing transmission reforms, which will take some time to produce results, and be wary of Republican attempts to expand the grid in the name of fossil fuels. So long as the current FERC chair Willie Phillips does not retire, the Democrats will carry a 3-2 majority on the commission until the end of his term in 2026, hopefully protecting the commission from the Trump administration’s worst excesses.

For at least the next two years, Democrats won’t be able to shepherd the nation through the clean energy transition. But by defending the steps towards grid reform already taken, they can continue to accelerate that transition.

____

James Hassett is a doctoral student in the history department at Northwestern University. This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.

___

©2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.