WASHINGTON — ICYMI, Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES) President and CEO Heather Reams and The Business Council for Sustainable Energy’s (BCSE) President Lisa Jacobson penned a new op-ed in RealClearEnergy about America’s growing energy needs and how the nation can meet the moment.
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Read the full op-ed below:
America is in a new era of energy demand growth—and we have the potential to meet the moment. Every day, new technology comes online that powers our homes, military installations and infrastructure. This presents us with a choice: build or get left behind, because the development of new technology like data centers shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, according to the newly released 2026 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook from the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) and BloombergNEF, data centers are now a dominant force behind rising power demand in the United States and the associated impact on grid constraints and electricity prices.
Across the board, development continues to rise: Demand has grown more than 400% in the past 10 years and 150% in the last five. Through the first quarter of 2025, a cumulative 23 GW of data center IT capacity was live in the United States, and an additional 48 GW was under construction or committed. Including early-stage announcements, that number becomes 236 GW of power-hungry data centers.
Amid data center load growth and a broader political focus on affordability, electricity costs are increasingly top of mind for policymakers. Wholesale power prices increased sharply in the natural gas-heavy Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, reflecting higher gas prices, pressure on capacity markets and grid constraints. Prices rose 62% in New York State, 60% in New England and 45% in PJM, the largest regional transmission organization that coordinates wholesale electricity across 13 states and the District of Columbia. Despite growing attention, retail price increases were more gradual on average at 2.3% year-on-year. Over the past decade, U.S. residential electricity prices have risen 32%.
The solution to meeting this load is clear to those of us who work with energy businesses. America needs affordable, reliable energy now–and a broad portfolio of energy technologies are ready to hit the ground running. The 2026 Factbook reports that a broad portfolio of energy sectors–including energy efficiency, renewable energy, energy storage, natural gas and sustainable transportation–continued to grow across the country in 2025.
The United States saw the highest annual capacity additions in more than two decades, with 54 GW of new utility-scale generation and storage capacity commissioned in 2025. Renewables accounted for 61% of new capacity, with utility-scale solar specifically leading with 27 GW of alternating current capacity commissioned. Utility-scale energy storage emerged as a central component of new capacity, with a record 15.2GW added in 2025, up 35.4% year-over-year. Natural gas capacity additions also doubled year-over-year.
Nevertheless, the growth in energy investment and deployment in 2025 came even as the industry grappled with uncertainty driven by federal policy changes. Eighty-seven new U.S. trade and tariff policies were announced in 2025, creating unpredictability for companies and investors with exposure to cleantech supply chains. Businesses relying on the 10-year timeline of federal tax incentives enacted in 2022 had to adjust development plans as many credits were abruptly phased out in late 2025. Federal permitting revocations and restrictions, especially impacting wind and solar projects, have added additional delays to already lengthy approval timelines.
The slow pace at which infrastructure projects secure all necessary permits and move forward remains a key obstacle for energy deployment. In 2025 alone, 377 GW of new capacity applied to interconnect in the seven U.S. independent system operators, with energy storage projects making up the majority. It can take years for these projects to connect to the grid and bring power online. From transmission to hydropower relicensing and carbon capture and sequestration, reforms to federal permitting and siting regulations could help alleviate these difficulties and accelerate the pace of the U.S. energy expansion.
Businesses are ready to deploy solutions to meet energy demand, but they need certainty that policies and permits will not change once commitments to long-term energy sector investments have been made. The United States can capitalize on this momentum through long-term policy and regulatory reforms, such as enacting permitting reform and continuing investment in innovation through R&D initiatives.
As shown in the 2026 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook, a broad portfolio of energy technologies drove U.S. power generation to reach its highest volume in two decades. With the backing of long-term federal policy support, these sectors are poised to meet surging energy demand and capitalize on the momentum of our country’s energy expansion. Now is the time to work together to realize America’s energy abundance.