Rising Electricity Prices Shouldn’t Mean Ripping Off Ratepayers
Data for Progress and Climate and Community Institute's monthly snapshot of the widespread demand and pathways forward for climate action.
Intensifying political chaos and insufficient planning to combat climate and economic crises pose existential challenges. In this newsletter, we offer a monthly snapshot of the widespread demand for climate action and pathways forward.
Rising Electricity Prices Shouldn’t Mean Ripping Off Ratepayers
Across the country, rising electricity prices are making headlines, with prices predicted to rise an average of 13% — and as high as 26% in certain parts of the country — from 2022 to 2025. Driving these increases are expensive upgrades and repairs as our aging electric grid struggles against intensifying, climate change-driven extreme weather, an overreliance on natural gas exposing the grid to high price volatility, and rising demand for electricity, fueled by the AI and data center boom and the shift to electric transport and buildings.
And voters are feeling these price hikes: A new Data for Progress poll finds 62% of voters report paying more for their utility bills, including majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. When asked who is most responsible for higher electricity utility bills, voters most often blame utility companies increasing their profits (38%).
![Bar chart of polling data from Data For Progress. Title: Voters Most Blame Utility Companies For Higher Electric Utility Bills. Description: Who or what do you think is most responsible for higher electric utility bills? Utility companies increasing profits — 38% Increased energy demand from new industries (like AI) — 14% Extreme weather events causing higher energy demand — 11% Aging or inadequate energy infrastructure — 10% Foreign conflicts limiting energy supply — 9% Increased reliance on fossil fuels — 8% Increased reliance on wind and solar energy — 5% Something else [please specify] — 5% September 19–22, 2025 survey of 1,361 U.S. likely voters.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!6BkX!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b5531d1-9d16-478e-a3be-db82edd1f99b_1840x1162.png "Bar chart of polling data from Data For Progress. Title: Voters Most Blame Utility Companies For Higher Electric Utility Bills. Description: Who or what do you think is most responsible for higher electric utility bills? Utility companies increasing profits — 38% Increased energy demand from new industries (like AI) — 14% Extreme weather events causing higher energy demand — 11% Aging or inadequate energy infrastructure — 10% Foreign conflicts limiting energy supply — 9% Increased reliance on fossil fuels — 8% Increased reliance on wind and solar energy — 5% Something else [please specify] — 5% September 19–22, 2025 survey of 1,361 U.S. likely voters.")
New research from Climate and Community Institute and Public Grids shows that these voters aren’t wrong: The electricity affordability crisis is enabled by utilities’ ratemaking policies and practices, as well as private utilities’ interest in maximizing profits for shareholders, often at the expense of ratepayers. Expert analysis of how utility rates are set for working people shows that most efforts to reform the U.S. power grid within the past several decades have focused on privatizing ownership of energy infrastructure, leading to a byzantine and uncoordinated grid that has destabilized costs, made services less reliable, decreased energy conservation, slowed renewable energy development, and hastened upward wealth redistribution.
The report outlines six policy recommendations to protect people from rising costs, shutoffs, and utility price gouging:
Year-round protections from utility shutoffs and policies to close coverage gaps should be implemented to protect people with low incomes — especially the elderly, the disabled, and families with children, all of whom are at greater risk of illness or death during extreme temperatures.
Public utility commission staff and commissioners should be required to evaluate a baseline for all costs of needed grid investments with a 0% rate of return on equity premium, as if the investments were made under public ownership.
Public banks or other public finance authorities should be established and used to support termination of privately held franchise agreements and buy back the grid for public ownership and local control.
State and local public service commissioners should compel utilities to advance a just and equitable transition under existing utility regulation authorities.
Elected officials like governors and mayors should direct their utility regulators to review history of approved rates of return on electric grid investments and evaluate the total excess costs to their communities above the actual cost of capital secured by private utilities.
State consumer advocates and attorneys general should establish new practice areas that focus on least-cost grid planning to protect state economic interests and consumer rights, such as estimating public ownership of the entire energy system, including generation, transmission, and distribution system investment and operation costs.
Yet, voters are split on which party they trust more to handle rising electric bills: 39% say they trust the Democratic Party more to handle electric bills, while 38% say they trust the Republican Party more.
Clearly, voters are concerned about rising electric bills and want a party to protect them, but aren’t sure which party they can trust to take action. With prices only projected to keep rising, especially with the Trump administration’s recent attacks on clean energy and grid investments, we need to act fast to ensure reliable, affordable electricity for all.
