Electricity prices are rising faster than broader inflation, making it more difficult for President Donald Trump to keep his campaign promise of cutting electricity and energy prices in half.
Electricity prices rose by 6.2% for the year ending in August, with prices increasing by 0.2% on a month-to-month basis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its latest Consumer Price Index report released Thursday.
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This year-over-year increase is more than double the rate of inflation, which increased slightly to 2.9% for the year ending in August.
Energy services, including utility gas, jumped in price by 7.7% for the year. Only prices for energy commodities such as gasoline and fuel oil saw yearly decreases, of around 6.6% and 0.5% respectively. However, gasoline prices did increase by 1.9% on a month-to-month basis.
The price of electricity has steadily risen all year, much to the ire of Trump, who has blamed renewable energy projects for the energy price hikes.
In August, the president claimed that any state that built and “relied” on wind and solar power projects was seeing record-breaking increases in electricity and energy costs.
“THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY! We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social at the time. “The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!”
Clean energy advocates have insisted renewables are not to blame for the price hikes, arguing that some states with the cheapest electricity also built large amounts of wind and solar power.
EIA data compiled by American Clean Power shows that the top 10 states with the largest share of renewables in their energy makeup have also seen significantly smaller electricity price hikes over the last year when compared to the national average (a roughly 2.5% increase).
The industry group reported that red-leaning states such as Iowa, South Dakota, and Oklahoma had some of the largest renewable share growth between 2024 and 2025 to date, while also experiencing as much as five percentage points less in electricity price change than the national average.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright has defended the president’s censure of wind and solar, previously telling the Washington Examiner that analyses should have a “country-wide” focus and not zero in on individual states.
He pointed to Iowa and Oklahoma, insisting that their rate hikes have remained low because they opted not to close existing fossil fuel power plants.
Wright also insisted these states don’t necessarily consume the energy generated by renewables in their states, as they are a part of larger grid networks, such as the Midcontinent Independent System Operator. When energy is generated in a state like Iowa, the state sells the energy directly into the multi-state market, where it is distributed across the region.
“When they talk about Iowa, how much electricity they produce from wind power in Iowa, it’s not all consumed in Iowa,” Wright said. “So when you look at [a] state, you’re just looking at a microcosm of a grid.”
The administration has gone to great lengths to stymie renewable energy growth, even halting offshore wind projects nearly completed. Forecasters, however, only expect prices to increase in part, due to rising natural gas and infrastructure prices.
WRIGHT BACKS TRUMP ARGUMENT BLAMING RENEWABLES FOR RISING ELECTRICITY PRICES
Last month, the Energy Information Administration estimated that average residential electricity prices in the U.S. will jump from 16.48 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2024 to around 17.90 cents per kilowatt-hour next year.
This comes as major grid operators such as PJM Interconnection have announced record breaking rate hikes, set to increase wholesale electricity prices by 22%. The rate hikes announced this summer are expected to cause a 1.5-5% increase in energy bills for PJM consumers next year.