BREAKING NEWS…Utah just had its best year ever for solar — and Trump’s new rules are threatening to kill nearly half of what’s coming next…FULL DETAILS 👇 👇

BREAKING NEWS…Utah just had its best year ever for solar — and Trump’s new rules are threatening to kill nearly half of what’s coming next…FULL DETAILS 👇 👇

In 2025, Utah installed more than 1.2 gigawatts of solar — more than any year in the last decade, enough to vault the state from 36th to 8th in new solar capacity. It’s the kind of growth Republicans usually brag about: cheap power, new jobs, and more energy independence in a place with endless sun.

Trump’s Interior Department saw a problem.

A 2025 order now requires Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to personally approve every solar and wind project on federal lands. On paper, it’s bureaucracy. In practice, industry experts say it has “amounted to essentially a ban on permits of solar projects across the country, not just on public land.”

Developers often need federal sign‑offs even for projects on private land, because of environmental reviews and transmission lines. If every big project has to go to the Cabinet level, nothing moves unless the White House wants it to.

The Solar Energy Industries Association estimates that in Utah alone, about 40 percent of planned new solar capacity over the next five years is at risk because of Trump’s policy. Roughly 1,400 megawatts of solar is slated to come online next year, including large projects near Cedar City and Delta. Most of that is now in limbo.

This isn’t happening in a vacuum. Utah’s electricity demand is rising with data centers, population growth and new businesses. Utility rates already climbed around 6 percent last year. When you kneecap the cheapest new power source on the market, you’re not just protecting fossil fuels — you’re baking higher bills into family budgets.

Jennifer Eden of Utah Clean Energy calls solar “an incredible resource” and points out the obvious: sunlight is free. Once you pay to install panels and storage, you’re no longer hostage to gas prices bouncing around based on wars and storms. Trump is forcing Utah to lean harder on coal and gas at the exact moment the climate crisis is making heat waves and droughts worse.

There was one glimmer of hope: in April, a federal judge temporarily blocked parts of the administration’s effort to slow wind and solar development. But advocates admit it’s just one battle in a longer war. Trump can drag his feet, find new pretexts, or simply ignore the spirit of the ruling while pretending to comply.

Meanwhile, small solar businesses are already going under. Some rooftop installers have closed shop in the wake of federal policy changes and the end of tax credits Trump killed off. Others are scrambling to survive by switching to lease models that let them use a remaining credit.

Utah prides itself on cheap power, wide‑open land and a frontier spirit. Trump’s policy turns that into a bottleneck: one politician and his hand‑picked secretary deciding, project by project, whether the future gets to show up.

If you appreciate my posts, it would mean the world if you followed my page. Thank you for being here.