Heinrich: ‘Republicans are going to own increased energy prices'
Democrats are going to make increasing energy prices an issue for Republicans in the next election cycles, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking member Martin Heinrich said Tuesday.
President Donald Trump promised to bring down energy prices during his campaign, but congressional Republicans are threatening to cut incentives for renewable energy and battery projects. The lack of new electricity generation projects plus rising demand from AI data centers and greater volumes of natural gas for export threaten to increase electricity bills for U.S. consumers, the New Mexico Democrat said during the POLITICO Energy Summit.
'We're in a constrained supply environment and an increased demand environment,' Heinrich said. 'People's electricity bills all over the country are going to go up. What I can guarantee you is in the next election and the election after that Republicans are going to own increased energy prices.'
Natural gas prices could rise 25 percent next year as LNG exports rise faster than drillers can produce the resource, Bank of America analysts wrote. And tech companies are building data centers that consume huge amounts of electricity.
Republicans are trying to rescind government support for new solar and wind power projects in their reconciliation bill. Meanwhile, power plants fed by nuclear energy and natural gas can take years to build.
'If you're not building renewables and storage over the next five years, you're only artificially increasing the cost of electricity everywhere,' Heinrich said. 'I don't think consumers are going to stand for that. There's going to be an enormous political price to pay for that. People will see it and feel it in their electricity bills.'
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