Plans for new fossil fuel power in the United States are surging as electricity demand rises, driven largely by energy-hungry data centers, factories, and electric vehicles. According to a recent report by the Environmental Defense Fund and Atlas Public Policy, the country is planning more fossil fuel infrastructure than it has in a decade, even though building new wind and solar farms remains significantly cheaper.
The resurgence marks a sharp turnaround for the American energy sector. While wind and solar generated more electricity than coal for the first time in 2024, renewable expansion has begun to slow. The Trump administration has moved to curb renewable energy by halting permits, issuing stop-work orders, and canceling tax incentives in favor of fossil fuels. New fossil fuel projects represented just 5 percent of planned electricity capacity in 2024, but that share jumped to 30 percent by the second quarter of 2026. If the trend continues, fossil fuel projects could make up 70 percent of planned capacity by 2030.
However, analysts caution that some of these projects may never be built, especially if projected power demands for artificial intelligence data centers turn out to be exaggerated. Even so, clean energy projects are currently being canceled at a higher rate than fossil fuel projects. The shift also carries financial and environmental risks: new combined-cycle natural gas plants cost an average of $90 per megawatt-hour compared to under $70 for solar and wind. Paired with fuel price volatility and increased greenhouse gas emissions, the growing reliance on fossil fuels could leave consumers facing higher electricity bills for decades to come.