US fossil-fuel project plans climb as electricity demand rises

US plans for new fossil-fuel infrastructure have expanded as electricity demand rises, The Verge reported, citing a new report that analyzes data from the US Energy Information Administration. The report tracks a marked increase in fossil-fuel projects’ share of planned new electricity-generation capacity: from 5 percent in 2024 to 30 percent by the second quarter of 2026.

The demand increase is also notable in historical terms. The Verge says the report found electricity use climbing faster than it had in more than a decade. The report connects the two developments in its account of the changing power-sector outlook, but does not assign a cause for the rise in demand or identify particular projects, companies or regions behind the expansion.

The report estimates that planned fossil-fuel capacity would reach 68 gigawatts by 2030. That figure is 45 percent above construction plans from six months earlier, according to The Verge. The comparison indicates that the project pipeline grew substantially over that interval; it describes planned capacity, not generation already operating.

The report also sets out a conditional projection: if the current trend continues, fossil fuels could make up 70 percent of the development pipeline by the end of the decade. That is a forecast rather than a confirmed outcome, and it depends on the trend persisting.

The report’s figures distinguish the share of new capacity plans at two points from the projected composition of the broader development pipeline.

In describing the stakes for the electricity system, the report calls the power sector’s position a “new inflection point.” It says decisions made now will shape the grid’s cost, reliability and emissions profile over the coming decades.

The figures therefore place the expansion of planned fossil-fuel capacity alongside a sharp rise in electricity demand, while the longer-term effects remain tied to whether proposed projects proceed and the projected trend holds. The report’s analysis relies on US Energy Information Administration data, as The Verge describes it.

Its central measures concern planned capacity and development pipelines; the 68-gigawatt figure is not a report of electricity generation currently supplied by those projects. The account presents no response from government officials, power companies or other energy-sector groups.