Trump’s double whammy on dirty energy: pay more for fuel and power, and use more

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How the Trump administration’s policies are raising costs at the pump and at the plug while deepening dependence on fossil fuels, with a focus on nine states: Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.

While running for president, Donald Trump promised Reduce “energy and electricity prices by half, at least… within 12 months, at most within 18 months.” Those months have come and gone, and our families and businesses are paying more and more for fuel and energy.

Not only have energy costs increased under Trump, but the president’s actions also mean we will pay billions of dollars more at the pump and at the meter for decades to come. And because their policies are causing more air pollution, our health costs are rising too.

Meanwhile, some $86 billion The value of planned clean energy battery manufacturing, generation and storage projects has been dashed – and with them, the promise of tens of thousands of good-paying jobs – in the face of the Trump administration’s attacks on clean, affordable American energy. In the months since Trump launched war against Iran on February 28, 2026, gas prices are up to almost 50 percent on a national scale. That has cost the typical household more than $540 in additional fuel expenses in just the last seven months, while Oil companies rack up extraordinary profits.

Under Trump, we are not only paying more for gas, but we are also willing to burn more. Your administration has done it more expensive build, buy and operate electric vehicles, putting American factories and workers at risk. And the administration has repealed common-sense rules on clean vehicles and fuel economy. As a result, Drivers will pay $1,624 moreon average, to power a new car over its useful life. At the national level, eliminating those rules has put the country on track to consume approximately 40 percent more gasoline that we would do it with the current clean car regulations.

And the beneficiaries of these policies? He The oil and gas billionaires Trump solicited to help finance his 2024 campaign. The rest of us are paying the price.

Trump’s assault on clean energy

Household electricity rates have risen 15.1 percent since Trump took office, rising from 15.9 cents per kilowatt-hour to 18.3 cents, on average, on a national scale. Rates have risen 25 percent in Ohio; in Iowahave increased by a third.

the rate walks are largely due to the explosion of energy-intensive data centers; the cost of constructing new transmission capacity to serve those and other facilities; volatile natural gas prices; and investment for harden the electrical grid against the growing dangers of extreme heat, wildfires, storms and other disasters exacerbated by climate change.

However, Trump’s policies have sharply restricted the construction of wind, solar and energy storage projects.the cheapest and fastest way to add electrical capacity to the grid. and his Tariffs have raised the cost. of generation and transmission gears, just when we urgently need new capacity.

The Trump administration has worked to eliminate clean energy incentives and roll back common sense clean air standards. Has ordered the use of several Dirty and expensive coal-fired power plants that he had been scheduled to retire for a long time. And it’s wasted nearly 4 billion dollars of taxpayer money pay companies to cancel new offshore wind farms that would have generated enough clean, low-cost electricity to power more than nine million homes.

Lost American Power

Taken together, these policies could cost the country between 390 and 540 gigawatts of new electrical capacity over the next decade, up to 40 percent of what had been planned during that time before the Trump administration disrupted the industry. Even at the low end of those projections, the lost energy would have been enough to increase U.S. electrical capacity by a third, above current capacity. 1,200 gigawatts on a national scale.

The lost power represents up to $700 billion in lost investments over the next decade, that could have supported half a million direct jobs, compared to what was on track to be built before Trump took office. Already, under the Trump administration, companies have canceled 36 billion dollars in new American factories that would have employed more than 50,000 workers to manufacture solar panels, electric vehicles, advanced batteries and other clean energy components.

That is in addition to the cancellation of another 50 billion dollars investment in new solar and wind energy projects and advanced battery storage that together would have added 28 gigawatts of new electrical capacity nationwide, enough to power almost four million homes.

Staggering health costs

Finally, by increasing the amount of mercury, Soot, and others harmful pollutants of coal- and natural gas-burning power plants, the Trump administration’s policies are projected to result in cumulative additional costs of $640 billion, nationally, between 2026 and 2035. This is due to increased incidence of asthma, heart disease, lung ailments, and other diseases that cause 5.4 million additional days of absence from school or work and an estimated 35,000 additional premature deaths nationwide, according to NRDC modeling results using US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) methods to estimate the impacts of pollution.

State by State: The Rising Costs of Trump’s Dirty Energy Agenda

To show how all of this directly affects a representative sample of Americans, the following sections break down these costs and what they mean for people in nine states: Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texasand Wisconsin.

Read analyzes of these states on the NRDC website.

NRDC article. By Bob Deans, Senior Communications Advisor