Despite President Trump’s big promises of driving down consumer energy bills, the cost of energy actually rose for consumers in 2025. Throughout his electoral campaign and during his first year in office, Trump pledged to slash Americans’ energy bills. However, his new approach to energy seems to have done the opposite, with higher prices expected for 2026 and beyond.
Upon entering office for his second term, President Trump announced a state of energy emergency, quickly passing executive orders to curb the rollout of former-President Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and limit the deployment of renewable energy, to instead focus on expanding fossil fuels. This resulted in the pause of several wind energy projects across the U.S., as well as greater investor uncertainty in the clean energy sector, which stalled development. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to expand its oil and gas operations and is prolonging the life of several of its coal plants.
According to a Guardian analysis of data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average household electricity bill in the U.S. was 6.7 percent higher in 2025 than in 2024. This equates to an average household spending of around $116 more in 2025 than in the previous year. Some states have seen energy bills increase at a faster pace than others, with Washington DC experiencing the more dramatic increase, with electricity costs at 23 percent higher in 2025. Indiana came in second, with a 17 percent increase.
In addition to higher electricity bills, the cost of gas has also increased, by around 5.2 percent on average in the last year, according to EIA figures. This has led to an upsurge in disconnections for unpaid bills across several states. For example, the disconnection rate in New York State rose fivefold. This trend reflects the rising pressure on the consumer to choose between essentials, as the cost of groceries has also increased.
The executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, Mark Wolfe, stated, “Instead of reducing electric bills by 50 percent, the president’s actions have raised the cost of home energy for all Americans.” Wolfe added, “It used to be the poorest Americans who struggled with their power bills, but now we are seeing more and more middle-income families who have to make sacrifices to avoid being shut off. But there’s a limit to how much people are able to sacrifice, which we are very concerned about.”
In recent weeks, Trump has claimed that the affordability crisis is a “hoax” and a “fake narrative” invented by his political enemies. The president has also suggested that 2025 was the “greatest first year in history” for the economy.
As Trump focuses on expanding oil and gas production and keeping coal plants running, Americans are losing out on cheaper and cleaner sources, such as wind energy. Because coal-fired plants are increasingly costly and inefficient to run, delaying the decommissioning of several ageing U.S. plants is costing the consumer billions. Meanwhile, works have halted on several offshore wind energy projects over the past year, as Trump has restricted development in the sector, leading several companies to fight the move in court.
The projects that have been cancelled or delayed since Trump came into office have resulted in a loss of almost 25 GW of planned energy generation, which could have provided power to almost 13.2 million households, according to a Climate Power report published in December.
Meanwhile, Trump’s broad support for large-scale data centres, to support the rollout of artificial intelligence (AI), has driven the U.S. energy demand to increase for the first time in decades. Greater pressure from consumers about rising bills and concerns over an energy supply gap has finally led the White House to call for an emergency wholesale electricity auction, aimed at forcing tech companies to pay for the new power they require to run giant data centres.
In addition to encouraging fossil fuel expansion, Trump has also shown support for nuclear power, with significant investments in a range of nuclear technologies. While new power plants could help provide vast quantities of clean power to consumers, they will take several years to develop, during which time there will likely be a power supply shortage if tech companies are given free rein.
The increase in U.S. energy demand is expected to drive up consumer energy bills. While tech companies may be more than happy to pay a high price to get their data centre expansions approved, finding the energy needed to power normal households will be challenging. This is largely because the shift away from renewable energy expansion has slowed the development of new energy capacity. While investments in nuclear power may eventually help to fill this gap, it will likely take decades for them to make a meaningful impact.
By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com
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