Households in the contiguous United States will pay thousands of dollars more for energy through 2040 because of federal policy changes since President Donald Trump returned to office such as canceling new clean energy projects, according to modeling released Friday by a nonpartisan think tank.
The Energy Innovation analysis found that households will pay an average of $6,500 more for energy, cumulatively through 2040. In five states, households will pay roughly $9,000 more: Oregon, Mississippi, South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming.
The California-based think tank said there will be more demand for natural gas for electricity because the administration is canceling new wind, solar and hydrogen projects and there will be more gasoline demand for transportation because Trump and Congress are revoking policies that incentivized efficient and lower-emissions vehicles. Higher demand increases prices.
Energy prices are elevated in many countries. The International Energy Agency said after Russia invaded Ukraine, record prices were observed between 2022 and 2024 in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan and Korea. In many countries, the rise has outpaced income growth and inflation since 2019, including the European Union and the United States.
In some areas of the U.S., demand from data centers is being blamed. The Iran war has sent oil and gasoline prices sharply higher, too. The Energy Information Administration expects residential U.S. customers to pay about 18.6 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2027, compared to 17.3 cents in 2025 and 18.2 cents in 2026.
The independent research firm Rhodium Group has also examined the issue, saying in April the U.S. has entered a new period of rising electricity prices. It cited increasing price volatility in natural gas, which is increasingly used to generate power; needed grid improvements; inflation; storm recovery and wildfire mitigation; and shifting policies.
Absent significant policy action, electricity prices likely will continue their significant rise over the next five years, the firm said.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said Wednesday that lowering electricity prices remains a top priority and Trump is unleashing reliable energy like coal and natural gas to reverse the damage Democrats did to the grid by increasing clean energy. A 2025 Department of Energy report, mandated by Trump, warned of increasing blackouts if the U.S. continued closing coal and natural gas plants.
“Joe Biden created a grid crisis; President Trump is fixing it,” Rogers wrote in an email. “If the Democrats had their way, these costly and unreliable renewable energy projects would still be failing our grid and our communities.”
The Republican president prioritizes fossil fuels to produce electricity, unlike Biden, who saw clean energy as a climate solution. The conservative Institute for Energy Research said in December that blue states have high rates because they have embraced aggressive renewable mandates, 100%…
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