President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to slash energy costs in half is slipping out of reach as electricity prices continue to soar across the country.
Cabinet officials insist that bringing down electricity prices is a top priority for the administration. They have sought to do so by keeping aging coal plants online and boosting oil and gas production.
Simultaneously, however, the Trump administration has stymied the development of solar and wind — some of the fastest energy sources to connect to the grid — and has yet to implement the reforms necessary to upgrade transmission to allow new power sources to supply homes, factories, and more.
Meanwhile, energy demand is only expected to grow.
Trump’s promise
Throughout his campaign, Trump vowed to cut the cost of energy and electricity for consumers dramatically.
“Under my administration, we will be slashing energy and electricity prices by half within 12 months, at a maximum 18 months,” he said during an August campaign rally in North Carolina.
“We’re going to get your energy prices down. We’re going to get your energy prices down by 50%,” Trump repeated in Pennsylvania just a few days later.
Over nine months into his second presidency, there is no sign that electricity prices will be lower anytime soon. In fact, electricity prices have only risen, outpacing the rate of broader inflation.
In the latest Consumer Price Index report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, electricity prices rose by 6.2% for the year ending in August. This is more than double the rate of inflation, which increased slightly to 2.9% for the year.
Brendan Pierpont, director of electricity modeling at climate and energy research firm Energy Innovation, told the Washington Examiner that this has resulted in some households spending 10% or more on their utility bills compared to this time last year.
While officials like Energy Secretary Chris Wright have affirmed the administration still hopes to bring these costs down, even some Republicans are not convinced they will be successful.
“I don’t see prices going down, hopefully, the increases can be slowed,” Steve Milloy, a senior legal fellow with the Energy and Environment Legal Institute and former Trump Environmental Protection Agency transition team member, told the Washington Examiner.
Milloy said he was confident that the Trump administration’s policies are still addressing the energy demand in the right way by focusing on extending coal and building out more natural gas. Like Trump, Milloy has blamed higher prices on the accelerated integration of renewables such as wind and solar.
“The system has been loaded up with all this green crap,” Milloy said. “Prices have been going up for some time because of all the green stuff. And you know … prices would have continued to — would have exploded with the demand and the failure of green to keep track of it to supply the power.”
What is driving higher prices?
The Trump administration has increasingly blamed renewable energy efforts for higher prices, but evidence suggests that the underlying cause of higher electricity prices is not that simple.
There are several factors driving costs, including the replacement and maintenance of transmission lines and their distribution infrastructure, Pierpont said. Utilities also face increased wildfire risk and more extreme weather, which require them to spend more money on risk mitigation. Plus, older legacy generation plants are experiencing rising costs related to maintenance and operation, he said.
“We at Energy Innovation took a look at the coal fleet in the U.S., and between 2021 and 2024, the average coal plant costs rose by 28%, outpacing the rate of inflation,” Pierpont said.
The growth in artificial intelligence and data centers, which are highly energy-intensive, has been linked to the rising energy demand. The Center for Strategic and International Studies forecasts that by 2030, AI data centers in the United States will consume nearly 84 gigawatts, compared to only 4 gigawatts consumed by data centers last year.
Grid operators have moved to significantly increase their capacity prices due to the growing need for power. For PJM Interconnection alone, wholesale electricity costs are set to jump by 22%. When the rates take effect in the summer of 2026, consumers in the PJM region are expected to see a 1.5% to 5% increase in energy bills.
That’s not to say renewable energy doesn’t play a role.
As many analysts point to the need for additional transmission infrastructure, critics have blasted utilities for failing to plan necessary upgrades and grid expansions properly.
Republicans have often accused utilities of prioritizing building new green energy projects instead of making these upgrades while removing traditional baseload energy, like coal, from the grid.
As these renewable projects have integrated more slowly into the grid than demand calls for, some suggest that this has forced grid operators and utilities to raise their prices.
“They don’t make any money from keeping a coal plant or an old coal plant or an old gas plant,” Milloy said. “They make money from a new wind farm or a new solar farm. So it’s that sort of corruption that has led to where we are now, which is, for electricity, skyrocketing prices.”
Who is to blame?
The Trump administration has repeatedly pointed fingers at former President Joe Biden and his administration for the electricity price hikes, blaming their accelerated phase-out of fossil fuels and focus on renewables.
At the same time, some energy experts dispute the idea that Trump has done much to lower costs.
“Whatever he promised, there’s no action in the direction of reducing electricity prices,” James Sweeney, emeritus professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University, told the Washington Examiner.
Sweeney argued that the administration’s efforts to boost fossil fuels, limit renewable energy, and impose sweeping tariffs have not contributed to lowering power costs.
He said that wind and solar power have been the primary sources of new electricity generation in recent years, were previously supported by federal subsidies, and often offered cheaper energy than traditional sources. However, he noted that the administration’s actions to restrict energy development have led utilities to pay more for green energy, which is now reflected in higher electricity prices.
Additionally, Trump’s tariffs on materials such as steel and aluminum, key components in energy infrastructure, have increased construction costs for various energy projects.
“I have not seen anything he’s done that would reduce electricity prices,” Sweeney said.
Frank Macchiarola, chief advocacy officer of American Clean Power, also told the Washington Examiner that it is important to examine the Biden administration’s policies aimed at restricting oil production.
Macchiarola explained that the Trump administration appears to be pursuing a similar strategy with renewable energy sources, the fastest-growing source of electricity in the U.S.
“It would only be natural that energy prices would increase at a time when the American consumer is facing inflation concerns about the economy, and this has exacerbated it,” he said.
“This is an administration that has really kind of stressed the importance of American energy dominance, and what we’ve seen from President Trump is American energy weakness,” Macchiarola added.
As electricity prices rise, Democrats have placed the blame on Republicans.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said earlier this week on a conference call at Climate Week that “Trump and Republicans are doing what the American people hate most, and that is raise costs.”
“You may remember the biggest issue they had against Biden is raising costs,” Schumer said. “They’re making it much worse, and the American people are realizing it.”
Where should the focus be?
Still, some experts caution against placing any blame too quickly, as the energy system is highly complex.
David Hill, executive vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Energy Program, explained that the federal government has limited influence over power prices and that the electricity system is “very complicated.”
“I would say to the policymakers who are trying to point fingers of blame: There’s a lot of blame to go around,” he told the Washington Examiner. “Instead of trying to figure out how the finger of blame can be pointed, it’s, ‘How do we actually address this going forward?’”
To curb electricity price hikes and meet growing energy demands, Hill said the U.S. needs to focus on utilizing energy from all sources and reform permitting to accelerate the construction of transmission infrastructure and new generation.
Passing permitting reform has become a top priority for both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, with discussions currently revolving around reforming lengthy environmental reviews.
Earlier this month, the House also passed legislation that would expedite the interconnection process for dispatchable and baseload energy projects, allowing traditional power sources to connect to the grid more quickly. This bill, known as the Guaranteeing Reliability through the Interconnection of Dispatchable Power Act, passed with bipartisan support and is now with the Senate for consideration.
ELECTRICITY PRICES ROSE FURTHER IN AUGUST AS TRUMP BLAMES RENEWABLES
Hill said the administration’s emphasis on energy reliability is essential, adding that Americans want an energy system that is “reliable, affordable, and clean.” This puts the country in a unique position to move forward in a bipartisan manner, he said.
“The fact that affordability and reliability are concerns right now do allow for some bipartisan agreement on some important changes that need to be made that help us meet the challenge,” he said.
