Former President Trump claimed energy prices were falling and proposed a "Ratepayer Protection Pledge" requiring major tech companies to provide for their own power needs, though the plan's feasibility is unclear. The Trump administration and an industry-aligned think tank blame Democratic-led states for higher electricity prices, asserting a partisan divide.
However, federal data shows high power price increases are affecting many states that voted for Trump, indicating the issue is widespread. Recent election results demonstrate voter anger over electricity costs crosses political lines, with Democrats winning key races by campaigning on the issue.
Both Democratic candidates and climate activists are now focusing on energy affordability as a central pocketbook issue in the upcoming elections.
The main topics covered are political blame over high electricity prices, recent pricing data across states, and the emerging electoral strategy around energy costs.
Trump, however, asserted in his State of the Union address that prices were going down. “Nobody can believe when they see the kind of numbers and especially energy, when they see energy going down to numbers like that,” he said. “It’s like another big tax cut.” He proposed what he called a “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” that will require major tech companies to provide for their own power needs. It was not immediately clear how that plan would be carried out or whether it would alleviate the burden on a power system that still needs to make upgrades to replace aging equipment and address extreme-weather threats.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, blames Democrats for high electricity prices. “High electricity prices are a choice,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said repeatedly. On February 18, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt took up the argument, saying “red states with Republican legislatures currently enjoy lower average retail electricity prices than blue states with Democrat legislatures.”
Both are echoing a talking point that a fossil fuel industry-aligned think tank, the Institute for Energy Research, began promoting last year. The group released a report, Blue States, High Rates, that concluded 86 percent of states with above-average electricity prices voted for the Democratic presidential candidates in 2020 and 2024.
But the latest figures from the EIA show that states that voted for Trump in 2024 are sharing the pain of the power price shocks sweeping the country; 13 of the 24 states where prices rose in 2025 by more than the US average of 5 percent voted for the Republican candidate.
Last November’s elections made clear that anger about power prices crosses political fault lines. Not only did Democrats win the New Jersey and Virginia governors’ races with campaigns focused on high electricity prices, Democratic candidates also ousted two Republicans from seats on Georgia’s Public Service Commission by campaigning against recent rate hikes for Georgia Power. They were the first Democrats to win state-level office in a statewide election since 2006 in Georgia. The state will be a key midterm battleground this year, with pivotal races for US Senate and governor.
Both Democrats and climate activists are committed to the electricity cost message in their campaigns against the Trump administration and Republicans this year.
“The energy affordability crisis is not a red or blue issue,” said David Kieve, the president of Environmental Defense Fund Action, in an email last week. “It’s a pocketbook issue.”
Dan Gearino covers the business and policy of renewable energy and utilities, often with an emphasis on the midwestern United States. He is the main author of ICN’s Inside Clean Energy newsletter. He came to ICN in 2018 after a nine-year tenure at The Columbus Dispatch, where he covered the business of energy. Before that, he covered politics and business in Iowa and in New Hampshire. He grew up in Warren County, Iowa, just south of Des Moines, and lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Marianne Lavelle is the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for Inside Climate News. She has covered environment, science, law, and business in Washington, D.C. for more than two decades. She has won the Polk Award, the Investigative Editors and Reporters Award, and numerous other honors. Lavelle spent four years as online energy news editor and writer at National Geographic. She spearheaded a project on climate lobbying for the nonprofit journalism organization, the Center for Public Integrity. She also has worked at U.S. News and World Report magazine and The National Law Journal. While there, she led the award-winning 1992 investigation, “Unequal Protection,” on the disparity in environmental law enforcement against polluters in minority and white communities. Lavelle received her master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and is a graduate of Villanova University.
This story originally appeared on Inside Climate News.
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