Climate change remains a major concern for most Americans, but federal permitting delays are putting the US clean energy transition at risk. More than 92 GW of renewable energy projects and US $121 billion in investments now face growing uncertainty as regulatory hurdles slow the deployment of solar, wind, and energy storage.
Despite Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to deny the worsening of climate change ā a crisis largely driven by fossil fuels ā the vast majority of Americans remain deeply concerned about global warming and the related extreme weather events US communities are experiencing today.
A poll by Data for Progress reveals that a solid majority of American voters (61%) believe that extreme weather eventsāsuch as hurricanes, flash floods, droughts, and heatwavesāhave become significantly more frequent over the past five years. While concern is highest among Democrats (72%) and Independents (63%), the issue is also fracturing conservative circles: a plurality of Republicans (46%) now agree that these severe disruptions are on the rise. Interestingly, the perception of shifting climate patterns increases with age; while half of all voters under 45 (50%) observe a rise in extreme weather events, that number surges to 66% among voters over 45.
Furthermore, the poll shows that approximately two-thirds of respondents (67%) believe climate change is directly worsening heatwaves.
Large majorities also link a warming planet to the amplification of other severe disruptions, including:
– Wildfires (64%)
– Droughts (63%)
– Flooding and flash floods (62%)
– Hurricanes (59%)
– Severe thunderstorms and hailstorms (59%)
Notably, the survey reveals that even a plurality of Republicans (48%) connect climate change to the intensification of heatwaves, suggesting that the physical reality of rising temperatures is breaking through partisan lines.
Yet, federal energy policies are moving in the opposite direction. As The Guardian reported, the Trump administration has directly spent US $2.7 billion of taxpayer money on policies opposing wind power, while simultaneously allocating US $1.125 billion to prop up the coal industry. Critics argue these decisions are not only worsening the carbon footprint but are directly contributing to rising energy bills for American families.
Beyond utility bills, these fossil-fuel-centric policies are creating severe bottlenecks for the nation’s energy transition. A landmark report published by Wood Mackenzie, titled “Federal friction: permitting risk across the US utility-scale renewables pipeline,” reveals that federal permitting blockades are crippling the clean energy sector. Specifically, over US $121 billion in renewable energy investments are now at risk.
Following a Department of the Interior (DOI) memorandum issued on July 15, 2025, which centralized federal reviews and introduced complex approval steps, a massive 92 GW of solar, wind, and storage projects has been exposed to heightened permitting scrutiny. This administrative friction threatens 12 GW of projects on federal lands and 80 GW on private lands (where wetland constraints in states like Oregon, Alabama, Maine, Minnesota, and Montana pose major hurdles).
The consequences of this federal pullback are already tangible: permitting changes and federal funding withdrawals directly caused 7 GW of project cancellations or inactivity on federal lands in 2025 alone. As the impacts of extreme weather events US residents face become more severe, the gap between public demand for resilient, clean energy and federal regulatory hurdles continues to widen, threatening the economy.
