ICYMI: New York Times: Electricity Prices Are Surging. The G.O.P. Megabill Could Push Them Higher.

Washington, D.C. — The New York Times reported that if Republicans repeal clean energy tax credits, electricity prices for American families could rise by $400 a year within the next decade. The story explains how — as even Elon Musk and other prominent tech supporters of Trump have warned — skyrocketing demand from data centers coupled with a dramatic decrease in clean energy supply would lead to higher utility bills for everybody. The House Republican bill will hike energy costs, put 400,000 clean energy manufacturing jobs at risk, and create an energy crisis.

Senate Republicans have a choice: protect clean energy jobs and lower costs, or raise energy costs for their constituents to pay for tax breaks for billionaires.  

New York Times: Electricity Prices Are Surging. The G.O.P. Megabill Could Push Them Higher.

The cost of electricity is rising across the country, forcing Americans to pay more on their monthly bills and squeezing manufacturers and small businesses that rely on cheap power.

And some of President Trump’s policies risk making things worse, despite his promises to slash energy prices, companies and researchers say.

This week, the Senate is taking up Mr. Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill, which has already passed the House. In its current form, that bill would abruptly end most of the Biden-era federal tax credits for low-carbon sources of electricity like wind, solar, batteries and geothermal power.

Repealing those credits could increase the average family’s energy bill by as much as $400 per year within a decade, according to several studies published this year.

The studies rely on similar reasoning: Electricity demand is surging for the first time in decades, partly because of data centers needed for artificial intelligence, and power companies are already struggling to keep up. Ending tax breaks for solar panels, wind turbines and batteries would make them more expensive and less plentiful, increasing demand for energy from power plants that burn natural gas.

That could push up the price of gas, which currently generates 43 percent of America’s electricity.

On top of that, the Trump administration’s efforts to sell more gas overseas could further hike prices, while Mr. Trump’s new tariffs on steel, aluminum and other materials would raise the cost of transmission lines and other electrical equipment.

These cascading events could lead to further painful increases in electric bills.

“There’s a lot of concern about some pretty big price spikes,” said Rich Powell, chief executive of the Clean Energy Buyers Association, which represents companies that have committed to buying renewable energy, including General Motors, Honda, Intel and Microsoft.

A study commissioned by the association found that repealing the clean electricity credits could cause power prices to surge more than 13 percent in states like Arizona, Kansas, New Jersey and North Carolina and lead to thousands of job losses nationwide by 2032. […]

Still, the threat of rising electricity bills has made some lawmakers nervous about scrapping federal support for clean energy.

“Given rising energy demand, it is imperative that any modifications to the tax code avoid worsening the economic pressures that American households and businesses already face,” Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, wrote in a letter with three fellow Republicans in April. Repealing some tax breaks “would translate into immediate utility bill increases, placing additional strain on hardworking Americans,” they wrote. […]

In 2020, 34 million households reported difficulties in paying their energy bills or said they kept their homes at unsafe temperatures because of cost concerns.

The crunch comes as the Trump administration wants to end the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, a $4 billion federal fund that helps 6.2 million people from Texas to Maine pay for high heating and cooling bills. The White House called the program “unnecessary,” and said families would be helped by policies that lowered energy prices.

“We’ve got millions of families that are already struggling to pay their bills,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. “Now you bring in extreme temperatures, record heat, and it’s a very bad situation.” […]

But many power companies and analysts argue that the clean electricity tax credits are essential for keeping a lid on power prices in the near term.

That’s because companies were already planning to build a bunch of wind, solar and batteries in the next few years, which account for 95 percent of electric capacity waiting to connect to grids, and utilities can pass through savings from the tax credits for these projects to consumers. The Edison Electric Institute, a utility trade association, estimates that the tax breaks would save Americans $45 billion on their bills through 2031.

Another argument is that the tax credits can help protect against the risk of volatile gas prices by encouraging alternatives, including both renewable energy and longer-term technologies like nuclear or geothermal power.

“If we do anything to impede increased supply, that will clearly hurt the consumer,” said Ron Silvestri, a portfolio manager at investment firm Neuberger Berman who specializes in power and energy infrastructure. Mr. Silvestri called the House’s proposed rollbacks of clean-energy tax credits a “worst-case scenario.”