REPORT: The Looming American Electricity Affordability Crisis
How decades of energy decisions are hitting American families, and what must change now.
America’s electric grid is on a trajectory toward an affordability crisis decades in the making. Since the early 2000s, politically motivated energy policies, often prioritizing ideology over reliability, have steadily driven up electricity costs, which working families are now facing. The current administration did not create this trend, but it is now up to them to address it.
Data from more than 500,000 federal electricity records show a consistent pattern: as dispatchable fossil fuel generation is retired and replaced with intermittent wind and solar energy, electricity prices rise. This is not a short-term fluctuation. It is a long-term structural problem that has been building for decades.
If action is not taken now, the U.S. will face an energy system that is increasingly expensive, unreliable, and unable to meet peak demand. The consequences will be felt most acutely by working families, small businesses, and industries that depend on stable, affordable power.
This report highlights steps this Administration can take to reverse course and restore affordability to American energy.
August 21, 2025