Latest news with #electricityprices
E&E News
16-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Electricity costs keep climbing, despite Trump's promises
On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump vowed to cut energy costs in half. So far, that's not coming true. And estimates say that his policies could only make things worse. This week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected that retail electricity prices are expected to continue a rapid rise this year, with the average price increasing 13 percent from 2022 to 2025. Between 2013 and 2023, the agency said, electricity prices had tracked with inflation but are now expected to rise faster than inflation through 2026. Advertisement The rate of increase could be even higher in the Pacific region, where prices are forecast to rise 26 percent in that time, as well as in New England and the mid-Atlantic regions, which are both forecast to see 19 percent increases. The rates that Americans pay on their electricity bills is largely out of the hands of the White House and instead is based on what kind of generation a local utility relies on, how much the utility is investing in new infrastructure or the cost of fuel. Transmission spending is contributing to the increase in bills as utilities work to expand the grid. But experts say that Trump's policies punishing renewable energy and proposing to keep aging coal plants on the grid won't do much to help bend the upward slope of electricity prices. Many of those policies could be enacted into law if Republicans pass a proposed reconciliation bill that would eliminate Biden-era clean energy incentives. An analysis released Friday by the liberal Center for American Progress says that the average American household could pay as much as $70 more per year for electricity in just five years if the budget bill is enacted. That's because the bill would make it harder to build low-cost wind and solar power over the next decade, even as the grid needs an estimated 700 gigawatts of new renewable power by 2040 just to maintain reliability. 'At a time when we need to be building more sources of electricity to meet rising demand from data centers and other loads, the House Republican plan is to cut off federal investments in wind, solar and other renewable energy technologies,' said Trevor Higgins, CAP's senior vice president of energy and environment. 'If you cut that off, you'll strain the grid and the result is higher prices for families.' Terminating federal investment would lead to a two-thirds reduction in the amount of wind and solar built over the next decade, the report found, citing estimates from the research firm Rhodium Group. Other groups have higher projections for energy bills. The Clean Energy Buyers Alliance, which represents large companies who purchase renewable power, wrote in a February report that the average utility bill would go up $110 per year if Congress and the White House repealed clean energy tax credits. Resources for the Future estimated in March that bills would rise an average of $75 to $100 annually by 2030, with a peak increase of $150 per year. Trump has made boosting fossil fuels a key priority. In forum after forum, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has asserted the U.S. can drill its way to lower energy prices, including electricity. And lower energy costs will be a primary driver for cutting inflation. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has made a similar argument. Wright discounts the value of wind, solar and battery power, despite their rapid growth across the country. And he says that adding natural gas generation and reviving coal will fuel growth in the U.S. economy by providing consistent baseload power to data centers and industrial sites. Building off an 'energy emergency' declared in a Day 1 executive order, Trump have repeatedly knocked wind and solar as unable to meet rising demand. Last month, the Interior Department ordered construction to stop on the Empire Wind offshore project in New York, and it's halted offshore wind leases. Executive orders signed in April would make it easier to run aging coal plants, despite a record of high operating costs and pollution attached to coal generation. 'While prices are going to move up and down in the short term, the Trump administration is focused on changing policies, changing the investment climate for businesses in this country — all big wins for the American people that will ultimately lower energy prices and is why the President was elected in the first place,' said Department of Energy spokesperson Ben Dietderich in an email. The status of the House budget reconciliation bill remains up in the air, and some moderate Republicans have balked at the proposed repealof clean energy credits that have boosted manufacturing in their districts. Seth Nelson, spokesperson for the environmental group Evergreen Action, said electricity price increases is evidence that 'Trump's inflationary energy agenda' would be enshrined by the reconciliation bill. 'If Republicans succeed in passing this bill and repealing the incentives, families will see costs spike even higher,' Nelson said. 'It's simply a backdoor energy tax on American families.'
Telegraph
13-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Net zero will not bring electricity prices down, says British Gas boss
Britain's shift to a net zero power grid will not bring down electricity prices down for families, the boss of British Gas has said. Chris O'Shea, the chief executive of British Gas's parent company Centrica, wrote on LinkedIn that the shift to renewable power 'will NOT materially reduce UK electricity prices from current levels'. He added: 'They may give price stability, and avoid future price spikes based on the international gas market, but they will definitely not reduce the price.' Mr O'Shea based his conclusion on an analysis comparing the cost of renewable energy with gas, showing that the cheapest renewables cost roughly the same as gas and the most exotic are up to three times as expensive. It suggests that the move to an energy system based around wind farms, solar parks or emerging technologies like tidal power will not lead to lower bills. The verdict from the boss of one of Britain's biggest energy providers represents a damning rebuttal of Labour's pledges to consumers. During last year's election campaign Ed Miliband, now Energy Secretary, promised that the shift to clean energy would save households £300 per year by 2030. Mr O'Shea said: 'We need to stop having a polarised debate populated with unsubstantiated, but convenient, sound bites. 'I fully support the move to a cleaner energy system. I am simply very frustrated that people peddle misinformation at best, and disinformation at worst.' The British Gas boss made no mention of any particular politicians or parties but his judgment contradicts claims made in last year's Labour Party manifesto, which said: 'Families and businesses will have lower bills for good, from a zero-carbon electricity system.'
