Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Means Bigger Electric Bills for Millions

Millions of Americans across the country will receive higher electric bills because of President Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which was signed into law on July 4.

The culprit here is that the OBBB eliminated tax credits for solar and wind energy. According to research done by the group Energy Innovation, average electric rates could rise by an additional 18% by 2035. For an average household this translates into $170 a year. Some states will experience even larger increases in electric bills. For example, in Oklahoma, a state which generates a lot of its energy from wind, annual prices will go up as much as $540 a year.

Ironically, the increase in electric rates may well hit Republican states harder than their Democratic counterparts. The five biggest losers from the OBBB in terms of increased electric bills are Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. The conservative Washington Examiner points out:

With the One Big Beautiful Bill Act now law, there could be a spike in consumer energy bills in states represented by Republicans and handouts to blue-state residents. That is terrible news for everyday Americans and for members of the GOP hoping to hold on to their narrow majority in the Senate. However, it could have been much worse. In theory, it should have been easy for congressional Republicans to work with the White House on a spending plan that lowers prices and taxes with the added benefit of protecting vulnerable GOP senators in Iowa, Maine, and North Carolina. But because states generate electricity differently, this would mean reversing a perhaps too hastily made, ill-thought-out campaign promise: the elimination of the renewable tax credits put in place by the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act.

The Trump administration’s mistaken focus on eliminating tax credits for clean energy flies in the face of two trends in the energy market. First, demand for energy is rising to an all-time high in the United States and clean energy (wind and solar) is making up an increasingly large share of energy production. So, just when this increased energy is needed, the cost will go up significantly because of the elimination of the tax credits for wind and solar energy under the Inflation Reduction Act. Jesse Jenkins, who leads the Princeton ZERO Lab, puts it quite simply, “We’re effectively raising taxes on the country’s main sources of new power at a time when electricity prices are already rising.”

The rise in electric prices because of the OBBB are just simply arithmetic . How could the Trump administration be so misguided? The answer is simple and disturbing at the same time. President Trump and his administration simply do not understand how renewable energy works. As an example of this line of thinking, I point to an op-ed that Energy Secretary Chris Wright did for the New York Post:

How much would you pay for an Uber if you didn’t know when it would pick you up or where it was going to drop you off? Probably not much. Yet this is the same effect that variable generation sources like wind and solar have on our power grids. You never know if these energy sources will actually be able to produce electricity when you need it—because you don’t know if the sun will be shining or the wind blowing. Even so, the federal government has subsidized these sources for decades, resulting in higher electricity prices and a less stable grid.

Wright’s argument also misses the point that the fossil fuels part of the American energy market is increasingly unreliable. Research from the Center for American Progress points out that “the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme heat, wildfires, winter storms, hurricanes, and other extreme weather events is straining the grid, while also highlighting the vulnerabilities and lack of preparedness from conventional fossil fuel generation.”

The good news here is that clean energy advocates are fighting back and letting people know that their electric rates are going up—and who is responsible. Politico reports that “one such group, Clean Energy for America, is deploying billboard ads next week targeting seven of the lawmakers considered most vulnerable in the 2026 races. The ads in lawmakers’ districts say the Republican ‘just voted to raise your electricity bill’ and directs readers to RepublicanRateHike.org, a website the organization created. The ads target Reps. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.), Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), David Valadao (R-Calif.), Gabe Evans (R-Colo.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) and Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa).”

It is essential to view the rate increases from the OBBB on top of those utility rate increases already in the pipeline. The group Powerlines points out that “Q2 2025, utilities requested or received approval for over $9 billion in rate increases, including approximately $7.3 billion in new requests and $1.7 billion in approved rate increases. This brings total requested and approved rate increases for the first half of 2025 to approximately $29 billion.”

For consumers energy issues come down to the bottom line. Millions of Americans will be paying much more for their electricity because of Trump’s OBBB. This burden will fall disproportionally on those on fixed or low incomes. According to research by Columbia University, roughly 34 million Americans are energy insecure, meaning that they went without food or medicine to pay utility bills or they set their heating or cooling at an unhealthy level.

By all accounts, the 2026 midterm elections will be close. A few thousand votes here and there may well decide who controls the House of Representatives. The OBBB’s boost of electric prices may be the one thing that pushes Democrats over the top.