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“Electricity is the new price of eggs.”
The memorable quote from Charles Hua of consumer advocacy group PowerLines sums up the current conversation on energy affordability, which defined federal, state, and local policy and politics this year.
Americans are in the midst of a broader cost of living crisis, spurred by the first real bout of inflation in decades. Electricity bills have become a major driver of that worrisome trend, with costs rising at more than twice the rate of inflation over the last year, largely because it’s expensive to maintain, expand, and repair the grid.
Now, President Donald Trump’s policies are making the bad situation worse — despite his frequent promises to bring down costs. On his first day in office, Trump declared an “energy emergency,” saying Americans faced an “active threat” from high energy prices and that the country needed an “affordable and reliable domestic supply of energy” to curb them.
“Reliable” is code for coal and gas in the Trump administration’s book. The U.S. Department of Energy has used the “emergency” to keep fossil-fueled power plants open past their retirement dates and to prop up the dying coal industry, at great expense to ratepayers. A Michigan coal plant that was supposed to shutter in May instead racked up $650,000 each day in costs for ratepayers after the DOE ordered it to keep running. That number will only grow as the plant runs through the winter.
Meanwhile, the administration has retaliated against cheaper and quicker ways to get more power online: namely, renewables and battery storage. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed in July, scraps tax credits for solar and wind deployment as well as incentives for home energy improvements. The result? Fewer cheap clean energy projects will be built, and by 2035 the average American household will pay $170 more each year for energy than they do now, according to the think tank Energy Innovation.
It’s not just electricity. Natural gas prices are expected to rise this winter as well, and a delay in the distribution of federal home heating assistance, spurred by the government shutdown, will only exacerbate the challenge for families. More cuts to federal programs that help households reduce their energy usage and bills, including Energy Star and the Weatherization Assistance Program, could still be on the way.
The urgency of the energy affordability situation is starting to shape politics at the state and local level, too.
Throughout the year, blue-state lawmakers have invoked affordability both to bash the Trump administration for stymieing renewables — and to excuse their own backtracking from climate goals. That dichotomy has been especially apparent in New York, which in July passed a groundbreaking ban on new gas hookups that was expected to lower families’ energy usage and bills, but then paused its implementation just a few months later. In November, New York also authorized a gas pipeline project it had rejected three times before. Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has cited affordability concerns for her decisions.
Affordability also factored in on Election Day.
New Jersey’s Democratic Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill campaigned on the promise of building out more clean energy, including offshore wind, to curb rising prices. In Virginia, Democratic Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger and Democratic state legislators ran their successful campaigns on the promise of curbing power prices in the data center capital of the world. And in Georgia, where rates are rising fast, two Democrats who promised a focus on affordability and “clean, reliable energy” unseated Republican incumbents on the regulatory commission that oversees ratemaking for the state’s utilities.
The problem is likely to dominate the conversation again next year, exacerbated by concerns about data centers gobbling up power and Trump administration policies making it hard to build new electricity generation. Consumer advocates have called for officials to take bold action — including reducing utility profit rates and finally making it possible to build transmission lines — to alleviate the rising prices. We’ll see if any of those solutions actually come to fruition in 2026.
Disclosure: Charles Hua is a member of Canary Media’s board of directors. The board has no influence over Canary Media’s reporting.
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