Electricity costs continue to climb nationwide, and experts say infrastructure is a major factor.
"I think it's important to understand that most of your electricity bill is infrastructure," said Mike O'Boyle, acting policy team director at Energy Innovation. "And you're paying for the infrastructure we have right now."
O'Boyle said modernization of the nation's aging infrastructure is colliding with higher demand and rising natural gas costs, which account for about 40% of U.S. electricity production.
"It's kind of a wicked problem right now coupled with the international supply chain and trade issues that are really complicating things," he said.
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Natural gas supply costs surged in the first quarter of this year, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects 2026 prices will be double those of 2024, driven in part by increased demand.
"The United States will lead in AI," U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said. "We gotta balance two things. We gotta win the AI race and stop the crazy rises in electricity prices."
The Energy Department projects that next year, data centers and other commercial facilities will use more electricity than households for the first time. This shift comes as the Trump administration halts renewable energy initiatives.
"We are adamantly going to stop that in the United States," Wright said.
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The administration is also repealing many of the Biden-era green energy incentives — a move O'Boyle said could worsen price spikes.
"I think going forward, you're going to start to see the impacts of the current policy regime impacting customer bills," he said.
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