MEMO: Trump’s Current Approach to Energy Is Diminishing His Promise to Bring Down Costs

February 24, 2025

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In recent days, we’ve seen a burst of new public polling and news coverage on the warning signs emerging for Trump on the economy. His first month has been spent eliminating funds that help lower energy bills, and empowering Elon Musk to slash the parts of the government that keep planes safe in the air and send social security benefits to American families—while also pushing an unpredictable economic agenda that is actively raising prices and uncertainty around the world.

During his presidential campaign, President Trump presented himself as the change candidate to the American people by highlighting issues like the cost of living. Days before the inauguration, 6-in-10 Americans (60%) were optimistic about their finances in the coming year with Donald Trump as President. However, only after a few weeks in office, Americans are already waking up to a new painful reality. A plurality, 49%, of Americans now believe Trump’s policy proposals will increase inflation, including 47% of independents. Additionally, 66% of Americans say Trump is not focusing on lowering prices enough.

During his campaign, Trump promised that his energy policies would solve the higher cost of living issue: “I will cut your energy prices in half within 12 months. When that happens, everything‘s coming down.” [Grand Rapids Rally, Nov 4 2024]

But even some oil executives demurred on Trump’s “drill baby, drill,” promises—suggesting he was overpromising Americans while setting up his administration and the Republican Party for failure. For example, when asked about Trump’s comments and if the company would ramp up production, ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance confirmed that there would be no more production: “I think the message that I’ve had for the [Trump’s] transition team and the people looking into it [is] I’d say we are [already] drill baby drilling.”

Instead of focusing on the right policies to lower prices, Trump is cutting energy investments in the clean energy sector, taking away both consumer choice and competition from energy markets, and stopping investments in diversifying the US energy manufacturing portfolio. Americans are concerned about Trump’s early actions as 57% of Americans hold concerns over Trump’s cuts going too far.
Climate Power, in partnership with the EPC and partners, conducted a series of message testing¹ surveys measuring Americans’ reactions to some of the Trump administration’s early actions on energy and climate.
- Bottom line: Americans are concerned that the Trump administration’s early actions and proposed cuts to clean energy investments could translate to higher energy costs—and a higher cost of living— for them and their families.

Here is a list of messages that highlighted potential impacts on costs and how each message raised concerns with everyday Americans:

Do you support or oppose President Trump’s executive order to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement?
By withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, the Trump administration will raise Americans’ costs and expose us to more of the devastating impacts of climate change. Instead of focusing the government’s attention on lowering costs for hard-working Americans, Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement on Day One of his presidency. Doing nothing about climate disasters is estimated to cost Americans more than $690 billion per year. By withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, Trump is showing more interest in scoring points in culture wars than enacting common-sense policies to lower costs.	Oppose % -Support % +8pp
Do you support or oppose President Trump’s executive order to suspend new government permits and leases for wind energy projects?
By suspending new wind energy permits and leases, the Trump administration will drive up the cost of electricity for everyday Americans. We need to be generating more clean, American-made energy in order to lower electricity bills and help Americans who are struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living. Instead, the Trump administration is halting new wind power projects even though energy from wind is decreasing in price, already costs less than energy from fossil fuels, and doesn’t spike in price the way that oil and gas do in response to international events.	Oppose % -Support % +8pp
By suspending new wind energy permits and leases, the Trump administration will take jobs away from hard-working Americans, raise monthly energy bills, and hurt the U.S. economy. By stopping ongoing projects, Trump will cancel the 77,000 stable, high-paying jobs being created by the offshore wind projects that were in development before this announcement. These projects were enough to power over six million homes and drive down monthly energy costs for Americans.	Oppose % -Support % +9pp
Do you support or oppose President Trump’s executive order to weaken vehicle emissions and efficiency standards?
By weakening vehicle emissions and efficiency standards, the Trump administration will increase costs for everyday Americans. Weaker vehicle standards mean that cars and trucks will be less fuel-efficient, require more trips to the gas station, and cause Americans to spend even more of their money at the pump while big oil companies are already making record profits.	Oppose % -Support % +13pp
Do you support or oppose President Trump’s executive order to repeal the government’s environmental justice programs?
By repealing environmental justice programs, the Trump administration is hurting communities that are already struggling the most to pay their utility bills. These programs were meant to ensure that government investments in energy and infrastructure were helping communities that faced the biggest problems with high energy costs. By eliminating these programs, the Trump administration is denying relief to families who are falling behind because of the high cost of living.	Oppose % -Support % +12pp

¹Between January 24 and January 27, the EPC and partners conducted randomized controlled trials (RCTs) through the Grow Progress platform to test responses to Trump’s executive orders and early actions on energy and climate. Respondents saw either a message against an executive order (n=600 per message) or an unrelated placebo message.