As the holiday season approaches one prevailing headache set to keep hammering Americans is exorbitant electricity costs.

Though the Trump administration has worked to unlock more reliable energy resources several stressors on the American power grid mean that ratepayers will continue to see electricity costs rise according to multiple reports and energy sector experts. Aging energy infrastructure, the proliferation of data centers, rapid transition policies and increased electrification are all filtering into shocking totals on utility bills according to research from the Institute for Energy Research.

CEO of the American Energy Institute Jason Isaac points right to the past administration in his analysis.

“Americans may finally feel relief at the pump, but they are not getting it at the meter. Biden’s policies sent electric rates soaring more than 25 percent, and even with the [Energy Information Administration] EIA projecting a smaller increase of about 2 percent this year, families will still face higher electricity bills this holiday season.”

While on the campaign trail President Donald Trump promised to cut energy and electricity prices in half. However utility costs are projected to climb 2 percent from 2024 to 2025 according to data from the EIA. Electricity costs were projected to grow by 13 percent from 2022 to 2025 the EIA noted.

After years of stagnation America’s energy needs are soaring as artificial intelligence data centers, onshore re-industrialization and electrification drive demand according to the EIA, IER and some energy policy experts.

Crushing utility bills have already hit some communities. One 63-year-old Pembroke Pines Florida resident named Al Salvi told NPR in October that he pays close to 500 dollars a month.

“Seniors down here that are living check to check, now we got to decide whether we’re going to pay the electric bill or buy medication.”

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation warned that much of North America is at risk of failing to meet demand in extreme operating conditions heading into this winter.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright explained the difficult position the Trump administration faces.

“The momentum of the Obama-Biden policies … that destruction is going to continue in the coming years. That momentum is pushing prices up right now. And who’s going to get blamed for it? We’re going to get blamed because we’re in office.”

The Department of Energy warned in its July report that blackouts could increase by a factor of 100 by 2030 if America keeps retiring power plants without adequate replacements. It continued to single out wind and solar as key contributors to declining grid stability and argued that dispatchable generation from sources like coal, oil, gas and nuclear are vital to meet U.S. power demand.

Former President Joe Biden oversaw massive energy cost spikes with residential electricity costs rising about 25 percent from 2020 to 2024 according to IER research. During his tenure Biden stated that he aimed to shut coal plants down all across America, blocked the Keystone XL pipeline project, froze new liquified natural gas exports and allowed strenuous regulations on power plants that a top grid regulator warned would be catastrophic if they came into full effect.

James Taylor president of The Heartland Institute shared his perspective.

“Democrats committed arson on electricity prices and now they have the nerve to accuse Trump of playing with matches. In Trump’s first term, electricity prices rose by less than 1% per year. Under Biden, electricity prices rose 22%. I think the American people will trust President Trump’s energy policies more than hypocritical Democrat finger-pointing.”

Isaac explained why renewable energy drives costs higher.

“President Trump and Secretary Wright are reversing the damage by keeping reliable power on the grid and rebuilding what Washington tried to destroy for years, coal, natural gas, and nuclear.”

Energy policy expert Isaac Orr explained the hidden costs of wind and solar.

“The biggest costs of wind and solar are obviously not fuel. They’re not on the generation side. The problem is that wind and solar requires a lot of land, so it has to be built a long way from population sites. So, that means you need transmission to get it to people that can use it, and because it’s intermittent, you need to have some sort of backup… Whether that’s batteries or natural gas or whatever it is, you have to have some sort of backup.”

Isaac also criticized utilities for maintaining political commitments.

“Regulated utilities are still clinging to Paris aligned Net Zero pledges that reward costly spending on unreliable wind, solar, and batteries. If utilities want to help lower bills, they need to drop the politics and return to what customers actually need, affordable and reliable power.”