When Your Electric Bill Becomes a Cost-of-Living Crisis

What if electricity costs became the biggest pressure point in America’s cost-of-living crisis?

Some say it’s already here.

Over the past year, U.S. electricity prices rose 5.5%, more than twice inflation. In states like Maine and New Jersey, bills jumped over 25%. According to estimates from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, about one in six U.S. households were behind on energy bills as of March, with $24 billion in utility debt.

What’s driving costs higher?

• Data centers & AI: AI prompts can use 10x more energy than a Google search. By 2028, data centers could consume 6.7%–12% of U.S. electricity. Amazon, Meta, and others are building at a record pace. While they’re making record profits, their power demand raises utility costs that regular households have to cover.
• Rising demand: EVs, heat pumps, and smart home tech are adding even more demand. That is good for the climate, but it means the grid needs a lot more capacity.
• Aging infrastructure: Much of the grid was built in the 1960s. Utilities are upgrading equipment, adding wildfire protections, and passing the costs onto bills.
• Natural gas volatility: Gas fuels 40% of U.S. power. Prices are up and projected to rise another 17% next year. New export rules tighten domestic supply and push costs even higher.
• Policy shifts: The new OBBBA is expected to push wholesale power prices in NYISO and PJM up by as much as $8/MWh by 2035.

All of this adds up to the opposite of what people were promised. In 2024, President Trump said he would cut electricity prices in half within 18 months. Instead, the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects retail electricity prices to increase another 4% this year and 6% next year.

This isn’t just about bills going up faster than wages. Families are falling behind. Others cut usage because they can’t afford it. Utilities are racing to replace aging equipment while demand surges. Regulators are working to make sure the grid stays reliable without making costs impossible for people to afford. And if this knot feels impossible to untie, it’s because it is.

What keeps us up at night is not just the price hikes. It’s the bigger questions: Who should pay for all this? How do we build the generation where it’s needed and upgrade transmission without sticking households with the bill? And why are private data centers getting subsidies while regular families struggle to pay for basics like heat and light?

Are we ready for this? If not, rising power bills could become one of the biggest cost-of-living problems in the years ahead.