Soaring Electricity Costs Are Now a Hot Political Issue 01/19/26 12:02 PM
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Electricity-cost increases are outpacing other kinds of inflation, putting utility bills in the spotlight ahead of the midterms
President Trump has been fixated on lowering gasoline prices and convincing oil companies to “drill, baby drill” since returning to office, but a bigger political fight is brewing over power.
Electricity-cost increases are outpacing other kinds of inflation, vaulting utility bills into the political discourse across the U.S. ahead of the midterm elections.
Trump administration officials gathered at the White House Friday with a group that included the governors of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia to push the nation’s largest grid operator to hold an emergency power auction. They want the U.S.’s biggest technology companies to bring their own power supplies or cover the cost for new power-plant construction to stem concerns that their data centers are driving up electricity prices for everyday Americans.
Data centers are getting much of the blame for soaring power costs. Governors and senators of all political stripes are piling into debates over proposed rate increases, seizing on the issue as a point of consumer pain.
Soaring Electricity Costs Are Now a Hot Political Issue