Memo: Republicans’ ‘Big, Beautiful’ Rate Hike Threatens To Drive Americans’ Utility Bills Even Higher

TO: Interested Parties

FROM: Lori Lodes, Climate Power Executive Director

DATE: June 26, 2025

RE: Republicans’ ‘Big, Beautiful’ Rate Hike Threatens To Drive Americans’ Utility Bills Even Higher

American families are getting hit hard by rising utility bills. Since January, electricity rates have surged by 9%, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Energy. Now, with record-breaking heat straining power grids across the country, thousands are facing power outages, forced rationing of energy, and rising oil and gas prices due to turmoil in the Middle East. Despite this energy crisis, Republicans in Congress are threatening a new National Rate Hike that would drive energy costs even higher. 

Right now, Republicans in Congress are using a full “sledgehammer” to gut American clean energy. Taking cleaner, cheaper forms of energy out of the mix when energy demand is only growing — driven by AI data centers and climate-fueled extreme weather — would further threaten our grid reliability when Americans need it most. NextEra Energy, John Ketchum, CEO, put it plainly: “If you take renewables and storage off the table, we’re going to force electricity prices to the moon.” 

The result: a one-two punch that could cost families hundreds more per year.

Utility Bills Are Already Hurting Families

American families are facing an unprecedented energy affordability crisis. According to analysis by the Center for American Progress, nearly 60 utilities are raising or trying to raise electric bills by $38.3 billion and gas bills by $3.5 billion, forcing 56 million electric customers and 26 million gas customers to pay more for their energy.

In at least 10 states, utility companies are even hitting customers with double-digit rate increases, including:

• Idaho: Idaho Power requested a 17.35% rate increase starting January 2026, raising monthly bills by over $21 plus an additional $10 monthly service charge
• Montana: NorthWestern Energy increased electric rates by 17% without regulator approval, affecting 400,000 customers
• Pennsylvania: Duquesne Light increased rates 15% on June 1, with other utilities seeing increases ranging from 8.1% to 40.1%
• South Dakota: Otter Tail Power proposed a 12.5% increase, costing residential customers an additional $14.39/month
• West Virginia: Some Appalachian Power customers saw bills more than double last winter, with average increases of $47/month and a pending 13% rate increase request

The Republican Rate Hike Would Drive Utility Bills Even Higher for Families & Businesses

While families are already struggling with higher utility bills, House Republicans passed a reconciliation bill that would repeal clean energy tax credits — a move that is being echoed by Senate Republicans — that would functionally create a new national rate hike. This repeal of clean energy would:

• Raise energy costs by $110 per household as soon as next year — just as electric demand from new data centers is set to soar
• Cost families nearly $400 within a decade as clean energy production gets gutted when we need it most
• Eliminate home energy efficiency tax credits that help families with the upfront costs of new cooling and heating systems that lower utility bills and ease strain on local grids.
• Increase energy bills by as much as 20% from repealing just two key tax credits (45Y and 48E)
• Force industrial customers to spend $14 billion more on energy costs by 2035
• Eliminate 700,000 jobs over the next 10 years across the clean energy sector

Some states will be hit especially hard by Republicans’ plan to repeal clean energy tax credits. The 6 states most at risk of additional double-digit electricity rate hikes: 

1. Maine: +20% (households), +19.3% (businesses)
2. Nebraska: +15.5% (households), +18.1% (businesses)
3. Kansas: +14.3% (households), +16.7% (businesses)
4. New Jersey: +13.3% (households), +18.1% (businesses)
5. North Carolina: +13% (households), +20.3% (businesses)
6. Arizona: +12.7% (households), +17% (businesses)

The Damage Has Already Begun

While Congressional Republicans move to raise rates, Trump-era policies have already begun crippling the clean energy economy. 

• 142 clean energy projects are threatened, delayed, or canceled.
• $86.76 billion in new investments have been delayed, threatened, or canceled.
• 91,631 announced jobs have been threatened or eliminated.

The Bottom Line:

American families are drowning in utility bills, and Republicans want to throw them an anchor. At a time when we need every tool to keep energy costs down, Republicans are actively choosing to eliminate the very policies that provide relief — all to fund tax breaks for billionaires. 

The choice for lawmakers is clear: protect families from skyrocketing energy bills, or hand them a bill that could cost them hundreds more each year.