Efforts to block wind and solar energy have grown along with advances in the technology, especially since 2021.
USA TODAY’s analysis found by the end of 2025, 24% of counties nationwide had some impediment to new utility-scale wind and solar energy ‒ up from as few as 15% two years earlier.
That calculation of local rules included outright bans, zoning restrictions, land-use rules or political stonewalls. It also required USA TODAY to set a standard about which regulations were restrictive enough to count as an impediment.
Here’s what we found, and how we measured it:
In some cases, counties simply ban large renewable energy projects, as part of a backlash to their growing presence. Any county with a ban was counted in our data.
