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How Democrats Can Win on Climate and Energy Affordability
The party can lead by clearly explaining why electricity prices are rising and who bears responsibility, or they can surrender the narrative to corporate pundits and technocrats increasingly aligned with Big Tech.
Mar 20, 2026
The climate change conversation is shifting globally, especially in the United States, and Democrats need to get ahead of it. This is happening against the backdrop of US emissions rising by 2.4% in 2025, reversing a previous downward trend. President Donald Trump has reshaped the debate by waging an irrational crusade against wind and solar energy while maintaining deep financial ties to the fossil fuel industry. But Democrats face a political reality they can no longer sidestep: Electricity bills are rising, and working and middle-class Americans are feeling the squeeze.
Democrats have a choice, and they need to make it now. They can lead by clearly explaining why electricity prices are rising and who bears responsibility, or they can surrender the narrative to corporate pundits and technocrats increasingly aligned with Big Tech. That industry, with a long history of extraction and exploitation, is now racing to power massive AI data centers as quickly as possible, even if doing so locks in new fossil fuel infrastructure for decades.
The Truth About Rising Electricity Bills
The truth is more nuanced than fossil fuel lobby talking points suggest, and Democrats should convey it to voters clearly. Over the past three years, utility bills have risen largely because utilities have poured money into grid infrastructure, replacing aging poles and wires and repairing damage from increasingly frequent climate disasters. Generation costs, by contrast, have fallen. Roughly 90-94% of new electricity generation added in recent years has been fossil free, coming from wind, solar, and battery storage. The capital costs of all three technologies have declined exponentially.
Bills have also increased because regulatory barriers, permitting, and interconnection delays slow clean energy deployment, particularly in blue states. But this is not simply a matter of "bureaucracy." Corrupt politicians and captured regulators, often far too close to monopoly utilities like Duke Energy and AES, also share the blame. And in 2025, the problem is intensifying: Explosive demand from AI data centers is straining regional grids like PJM and pushing prices higher. Big Tech can absorb premium electricity rates. Working Americans cannot.
A modern Green New Deal framework can address affordability and climate simultaneously, and this is the platform Democrats should run on.
Geopolitics compound the problem. Electricity prices remain tethered to globally traded fossil fuels like oil and gas, leaving Americans exposed to price volatility beyond their control, such as recently as the war in Iran.
How Trump Is Making It Worse
Trump is not solving these problems. He is making them worse, and Democrats should make sure voters know it.
His vendetta against wind energy has already raised electricity prices in New England while eliminating thousands of well-paying union jobs. His efforts to gut clean energy tax credits have slowed deployment just as electricity demand surges, increasing pollution and locking the country into a feedback loop of climate disasters and rising costs. Coal, one of the most expensive sources of electricity, remains on life support in states like Michigan for purely political reasons. Meanwhile, the systematic undermining of climate science by fossil fuel propagandists at the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, and NASA will only accelerate climate-driven inflation, affecting not just electricity prices but also food costs and insurance premiums.
Trump's closeness to fossil fuel executives makes his "drill, baby, drill" rhetoric politically convenient but economically hollow, and Democrats should call it out as such. Expanding domestic drilling or seizing Venezuelan oil will not lower electricity bills, because Big Oil has no incentive to sacrifice profits. Under the Biden administration, the Federal Trade Commission found that American oil companies colluded with OPEC to inflate gas prices, costing families roughly $3,000 more per year. At the same time, Trump has signaled deregulation of AI-driven electricity demand, as the same Big Tech oligarchs who funded his campaign are now calling the shots. If policymakers want real affordability, they must confront corporate consolidation and enforce regulations that protect consumers.
The Platform Democrats Should Run On
Despite earlier missteps, particularly President Joe Biden's dismissal of inflation concerns in 2024, Democrats now hold favorable polling ratings on both climate and affordability. Voters want leadership. If Democrats fail to provide it, they risk ceding the narrative to technocrats, Silicon Valley “abundance” ideologues, and fossil fuel interests offering false solutions: more drilling and the same broken status quo.
Warning signs are already visible. Pipeline revivals in New York and climate backsliding in North Carolina and California now masquerade as "affordability" measures. Democrats must reject this framing. Abandoning climate goals will not make energy cheaper. It will make it more volatile, more polluted, and more unjust.
Democrats have never excelled at confronting oligarchs, utilities, and monopolies. But if the party wants to win on affordability and build a durable governing coalition, this is the only path forward.
A modern Green New Deal framework can address affordability and climate simultaneously, and this is the platform Democrats should run on. We know what works. Leaders like Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York and Gov. Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey have shown that linking climate action to cost of living is a winning strategy. Democrats can tax the wealthy and corporate polluters to fund clean energy at scale. They can invoke the Defense Production Act to manufacture heat pumps, grid components, and other critical infrastructure domestically. They can streamline permitting for clean energy and transmission lines without dismantling environmental protections.
Polluters like Exxon and Chevron must also pay their fair share. "Make polluters pay" is not merely a campaign slogan. It is a practical funding mechanism for grid resilience, climate adaptation, and public health, and a message that resonates.
The Courage to Confront Corporate Power
Just as importantly, Democrats must confront corporate power directly and truly build on recent wins in New York to expand building power capacity. Regulators who prioritize shareholder returns over the public interest must face accountability. Policymakers must regulate Big Tech's AI build-out and require companies to pay for the grid upgrades their data centers demand. Innovative clean energy procurement, such as Google's early efforts to match data center demand with carbon-free power and flexible load management, should set the baseline, not serve as the exception. Early collaboration among utilities, the DOE, and regulatory bodies like the Federa Energy Regulatory Commission can also create incentives to use AI to modernize the grid, streamline clean energy interconnection and permitting, discover new battery materials, and predict climate disasters.
None of this happens without political courage. Democrats have never excelled at confronting oligarchs, utilities, and monopolies. But if the party wants to win on affordability and build a durable governing coalition, this is the only path forward. The 2026 midterm elections are already shaping up to be a crucial test, with some candidates taking the lead by addressing voters' real concerns about data center build-outs and rising electricity prices in their communities. Democrats have a golden opportunity to win on this. The playbook is right here. Will they use it?
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Praising Platner's 'Fighting Spirit,' Warren Is Latest Senator to Endorse Maine Senate Candidate
“People are excited to vote for someone who will actually fight for them. Not just nibble around the edges.”
Mar 19, 2026
US Senate candidate Graham Platner said Thursday that he was looking forward to joining Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the fight to take on "Wall Street and the billionaires waging a class war against the rest of us" after the progressive lawmaker announced her endorsement of the combat veteran who has centered the struggles of working families across Maine in his campaign.
Warren (D-Mass.) became the fourth sitting senator to throw her support behind Platner, following Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.).
The "class war" Platner spoke about figured heavily into Warren's statement announcing her endorsement, which she gave in a video posted on social media.
"He understands what's happening to working people when there's not someone in Washington fighting like hell for your family," said Warren. "We've already seen it. Hospitals are closing down. Gas prices are up. [President Donald] Trump's illegal tariffs have made everything more expensive. And now we're at war with Iran."
"Oh—and God forbid, you want to buy a home," she said, referencing fast-rising median home prices, which have shot up both nationally and in Maine in recent years.
🚨Endorsement Alert! 🚨
“People are excited to vote for someone who will actually fight for them. Not just nibble around the edges.”
Thank you, Senator Warren. Together I look forward to taking on Wall Street and the billionaires waging a class war against the rest of us. pic.twitter.com/BQjKMNaldP
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) March 19, 2026
Like Warren, Platner has pledged to take on "the billionaire economy" by imposing a billionaire minimum tax, and passing a constitutional amendment to stop the ultrarich from "buying elections."
Warren also emphasized that as a combat veteran who was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, Platner "knows the consequences of Donald Trump sending our service members to fight endless wars in the Middle East."
Platner faces Gov. Janet Mills in the Democratic Senate primary; both are hoping to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Numerous polls have shown Platner beating Mills in the primary and Collins by several points in the general election, while Mills has been shown losing to the longtime senator or beating her by a smaller margin than Platner.
Ahead of Warren's endorsement, Mills launched her first attack ad against Platner, showing several women reading old posts the Senate candidate wrote on Reddit about sexual assault survivors several years ago. Platner addressed the posts several months ago, saying they do not reflect his views today. Since the controversy, which first came to light just after Mills entered the race at the urging of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Platner has continued to lead the governor in polls and has addressed overflow crowds at rallies across the state.
Platner also raised $7.8 million last year compared to $2.6 million raised by Mills and $4.6 million raised by Collins.
The enthusiasm for Platner in Maine did not go unnoticed by Warren.
"Graham Platner has the grit to go against the grain and to fight for what is right," said the senator on Thursday. "And the people in Maine are fired up and excited for change... That's the energy, that's the fighting spirit that the Democratic Party needs now more than ever. Graham Platner can help us win back the Senate, and he can help us build a country that doesn't just work for a tiny sliver at the top, but a nation that works for working families."
Platner called the endorsement "an honor."
"Sen. Warren has spent her career fighting those who use power and wealth to take advantage of working families," said Platner. "She's been an inspiration, and I look forward to working by her side in the Senate to take on Wall Street, monopolies, and the corruption in Washington."
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Working People Are Leaving MAGA, But Where Will They Go?
Working class voters need a home, but the Democratic Party refuses to build them one.
Mar 18, 2026
A new study by Jared Abbott and Joan C. Williams, of nearly 2 million 2024 Trump voters, shows that more than one in five are not planning to vote for the Republicans in 2028. That group, which they call the “waverers,” is disproportionately poor, non-white, and working class.
But neither are these waverers planning to return to the Democrats. According to the study:
Of the 20.1 percent who are wavering, only 3.4 percent plan to vote Democrat. The remaining 16.7 percent say they will vote for neither party or are unsure.
That poses a severe problem for anyone who believes that our political system should better represent the needs and interests of working people. And it should scare the hell out anyone who fears the rise of more authoritarians in the future.
These workers clearly are telling us that they don’t have a home. We’d better figure out how to help build one.
Run more working-class candidates in the Democratic Party?
That’s what most progressives argue for. They believe that such candidates can attract these disgruntled workers back into the Party. As one progressive campaign operative said to me, “Our goal is to once again make the Democratic Party the party of the working-class.” That’s also what the League of Labor Voters and the Working Families Party are trying to do.
But it’s an uphill struggle. According to the Guardian:
“Millionaires make up less than 3% of the general public but have unified majority control of all three branches of the federal government. Working-class Americans, on the other hand, make up about half of the country. But they have never held more than 2% of the seats in any Congress since the nation was founded.
For every former bartender like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, there are thousands of ambitious candidates who are well-off members of the bar.
The Democratic Party brand is in big trouble. In the study the Labor Institute conducted with the Center for Working-Class Politics (again with Jared Abbot, that boy gets around), 70 percent of the 3,000 voters surveyed in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin had negative things to say about the Democrats. And a hypothetical Democratic candidate ran 8 percent behind an independent candidate even when they said exactly the same things.
That makes it next to impossible to launch Democratic working-class candidates in the 130 congressional districts in which the Democrats already lose by more than 25 percent. In those areas, the Democratic Party is not just dying, it is dead.
What are the odds, really, of the Democrats changing their stripes? Do the reformers really believe that a trickle of working-class candidates can turn into a torrent of new working-class candidates, if only we pushed harder?
Never say never, but that would be more likely if Democrats faced a real threat from the outside—from new working-class candidates running as independents. Should those independents gain traction, we can be sure the Democrats will take notice.
Independent working-class candidates in red areas
If you are tired of seeing nearly all of rural America flash bright red on your screen a few seconds after the polls close, there has to be a new approach outside of the Democratic Party. Dan Osborn, a mechanic and former local union president, is doing just that in his Senate run in Nebraska. In 2024 he ran 15 points ahead of Kamala Harris though still lost by six points. He’s running again in 2026, and so far the race is a toss-up.
Osborn knows that his only chance is to run against both parties as an independent. He calls it the “two-party doom loop.” He is directly taking on the wealthy in both parties, including the scion of a billionaire against whom he is running for Senate in 2026.
At a recent United Steelworkers conference I ran into a young miner who is running for the state legislature in Wyoming, also as an independent in this deep read state, and he thinks he will win in a landslide.
The point is that these working-class candidates with union credentials understand that voters in these red areas, including their fellow union members, have little use for the Democrats, and the only way to run is by running against both parties. Their slogan seems to be: “Not Blue, Not Red: I’m a working-class independent!”
If more and more working-class independents run against the two parties, and succeed, then maybe the Democrats will realize that they too should run working-class candidates in red areas.
But I’m not holding my breath. I truly believe that it will be much harder to wean the Democratic Party from its wealthy donors and consultants than it will be to run independent working-class candidates in red areas. But that prediction won’t matter until more working people, and their allies, jump into the fray as independents.
Then and only then will those disaffected MAGA voters have a place to go, and candidates they are willing to vote for. If we keep playing pattycake with the Democrats we may be delivering these disaffected working-class voters to Cruella de Vance, or worse, next time around.
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