last month, the trump administration canceled a series of offshore wind projects after months of legal battles. he cited national security concerns regarding radar interference. however. >> the move cost the u.s. 1 billion dollars. our dana damiani speaks with an expert about the impacts. this decision might have. >> there is a greater demand for energy than ever before. but the stalling of hundreds of wind and solar projects on the federal level has left many wondering where that energy will come from. joining me to talk more about this is doctor erin baker with the university of massachusetts. amherst dr. baker briefly, talk us through the decisions by the federal government. what was the goal versus what happened? >> goes a little bit but there appears to be an attempt to slow down renewable energy. what we've seen, though, is that it hasn't been very effectively so far the actions the federal government have really only had limited impact. we saw that wind, solar and battery capacity direct grant record rates during 2025. adding about 50 gigawatts. the question is why with the government trying to slow it down? why is it successful? continuing to grow and i think it's because it's good business. we see that it's profitable to invest in these technologies. we see that renewable energy suppresses prices for rate pairs, which is really important right now. and one way to really see how good business it to look at texas. texas has the most wind energy. the second most solar and is building the most batteries in that country. they're not doing it for environmental reasons. doing purely because it's good business. and so we do see a so far a limited impact on from the administration. >> so the state government here in new york has a timeline from eating clean energy goals. what does this setback mean for these kind of efforts? >> it really. >> it's hard to say. i think that states can do a lot by streamlining permitting by continuing to have clean energy goals. having renewable portfolio is there's a you know this. this issue of pain, total energies, the french company, a billion dollars to abandon op sure when that's concerning. and that is hard for the states to it. it's a particularly baffling decisions, spending taxpayer money to increase our energy bills and make the u.s. more dependent on international markets for fossil fuels. but i do think that the states keep moving forward. i think a lot, you know, renewable energy is on the ground, right? and so states have a big impact because they can get that renewable energy on the ground in their states by having, you know, policies that are are sensible, that coordinate across permitting agencies that have renewable portfolio standards. and so i think that i think they can still keep moving forward. great attitude now. >> dr baker, could you explain the growing need for energy after years of flat demand what emily implications to these decisions have for the data industry. >> yeah. so we we are seeing growing demand partly from from data. and so was interesting, actually. >> we've added but i megawatts renewable energy. apparently that is 50 megawatts of demand from data centers in the last year as well. data centers are big reason for going to man as well as electrification. so electric vehicles, heat pumps to heat and cool. your house are causing an increase in electricity. and so again, at this time with increasing demand, it's not a great time to be blocking, renew landing projects because renewable energy, guess that brings prices down. the other nice thing about renewable energy is at its modular and what that means is say solar, you can put in one solar panel or 10 solar panels. alright 1000 solar panels, right? modular and so can come online. >> by bit and much faster than when you have to build a whole large plant. and apparently there is a backlog in natural gas turbines right now. there's no natural gas waiting in line to get connected on to what's called pjm. that's pennsylvania, new jersey, maryland. and there's apparently got a five-year back onto order turbines. and so with this growing energy needs a backlog natural gas than, you know, a new energy is really important. >> so no, dr baker, there's a lot going on in the world. how does the war in iran and a looming oil crisis planned all of this? >> well, it's certainly interesting to look at what's happening around the world. oil crisis i think we're experiencing already is causing a lot of countries to really go all in on renewable energy because renewable energy does provide energy security, right? if you have once relented reason stalled once winter cell. so there isn't stahl, you are completely independent from global events and that's just
