To: Interested Parties
From: Evergreen Action Communications Director Seth Nelson
Date: December 18, 2025
Re: Trump’s Energy Price Hike: The Bill Comes Due
He promised Americans cheaper energy. But Trump’s energy con job was always designed to enrich Big Oil at their expense.
As 2025 comes to a close, Donald Trump is running out of excuses. And out of time. Nearly one year into his presidency, the bill for his energy agenda is finally coming due. And working families are the ones paying for it. Trump sold Americans an energy con job, promising to “cut energy and electricity prices in half within 12 months—not just for businesses but for all Americans and their families.” Instead, he’s delivered the exact opposite: rising utility bills, record clean energy project cancellations, and a fossil fuel crusade that is locking America into years of higher costs and deeper volatility.
And Trump knows it. After months of pretending the economy is booming, the White House is now scrambling to convince Americans struggling under a cost-of-living crisis that their rapidly increasing bills aren’t real.
“We’re doing great,” he insisted in Pennsylvania last week, even as more than 8 million Pennsylvanians—and more than 157 million Americans nationwide—are facing higher electric or gas bills since Trump took office. One Trump voter summed up Americans’ growing sentiment about their wallets well: "We're all broke. It doesn't matter whether you support Republicans or support Democrats. We're all broke, and we're all feeling it."
Across the country, the consequences are unmistakable:
- This year alone, more than 2,000 power projects were canceled, slashing desperately-needed future supply and driving up costs.
- Winter heating is projected to cost families an average of $995 per home, a 9.2% jump from last year, after already record-breaking summer cooling costs.
- The average overdue utility balance has climbed nearly a third since 2022.
- Trump’s attacks on solar threaten at least half of all planned new power slated to come online through the end of the decade.
- Liquefied “natural” gas (LNG) export capacity is on track to more than double in North America, and Trump’s policies are accelerating it—driving domestic gas prices even higher for years to come.
And still, Trump is waging an all-out war on clean energy—canceling projects, freezing permits, dismantling incentives, and rewriting the rules, ensuring America fails to build the cheap, fast-to-deploy power we need. At the same time, he’s forcing dirty, expensive fossil fuel plants slated to close to remain open past their expiration dates—moves both making working families poorer and polluter CEOs richer.
It’s a pattern we’ve witnessed time and time again: Trump is building an energy system that costs more, pollutes more, and leaves American families with higher bills. It’s deliberate, it’s destructive, and will shape the cost of living for years to come.
Below is our final update of 2025, breaking down new actions Trump has taken since our last update, and how each is hiking costs for American families.
Trump’s Energy Price Hike: An Updated Timeline
December 16: Trump demands the European Union exempt U.S. oil and gas companies from climate rules to sell more American gas abroad
Action: Trump is taking his assault on climate action overseas, demanding the European Union carve an exemption for U.S. fossil fuel companies out of rules designed to cut methane pollution. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright complained that E.U. methane restrictions, targeting the primary component of so-called “natural” gas, would create a “huge” obstacle to trade by limiting American companies' ability to sell liquefied “natural” gas (LNG) to Europe. The demand builds on earlier attempts by the Trump administration, alongside the Qatari Government, to strong-arm the E.U. into weakening corporate climate and human rights rules to keep LNG imports flowing.
Impact: From day one of his second term, Trump has pushed for more LNG exports, lifting the Biden administration’s freeze on export approvals and treating U.S. gas as a bargaining chip in trade talks. Earlier this year, after floating that Europe could avoid tariffs by buying more American gas, Trump announced a deal under which the E.U. committed to purchasing $750 billion in U.S. energy products—more than triple its current imports. Whether or not that number is even achievable (it’s not), the motive is obvious: the more gas U.S. companies can sell overseas, the richer they get. And European climate rules threaten those profits. But there’s a direct consequence for families at home: exporting more U.S. gas exposes Americans to high global prices, driving up heating and electricity bills regardless of how much gas we produce. By prioritizing fossil fuel profits abroad, Trump is forcing American households to pay more so oil and gas executives can cash in overseas.
December 3: Trump’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposes scrapping fuel economy standards
Action: Trump announced that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) plans to reverse fuel-economy standards finalized under the Biden administration, which required automakers to improve gas mileage.
Impact: Fuel economy standards are one of the most effective, popular tools we have to cut air pollution and save families hundreds of dollars over the life of their car. Americans will now burn more fuel and hand over more hard-earned cash to the Big Oil CEOs who have spent years quietly working to weaken these rules. And while Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attempts to spin the fantasy that less efficient cars will somehow save people money, here in the Real World (and in the NHTSA’s own analysis), reversing the standards would increase fuel use by 100 billion gallons and cost Americans up to $185 billion. One expert told Reuters that any upfront savings for new car buyers would “evaporate [...] very quickly indeed” as drivers get hammered at the pump. Maybe Duffy should spend less time doing airport pull-ups and more time reading his agency’s own analysis—because that Trump math isn’t adding up. At a time when families are begging for relief, Trump is trying to mandate higher gasoline costs to hand a massive gift to his Big Oil benefactors.
November 26: DOE extends order for third time to force Pennsylvania fossil plant to remain open
Action: Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued yet another order forcing Constellation Energy’s Eddystone Generating Station outside Philadelphia to keep running, despite repeated warnings that the facility is uneconomic and past its expiration date.
Impact: Forcing expensive fossil fuel plants to remain online, long after planned retirements, locks ratepayers into higher energy bills. Experts estimate the cost of keeping the fossil plant online at roughly $70 million annually, costs that will continue to mount the longer the Trump administration forces the plant to remain open. Instead of making it easier to build cheaper, faster-to-deploy modern clean energy sources to replace outdated plants, Trump is forcing families to pay to keep them alive.
November 20: DOE cuts renewable energy offices and doubles down on Big Oil priorities
Action: DOE quietly launched a sweeping reorganization that slashed key clean energy offices, including the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and centralized authority around fossil fuel programs. DOE also disbanded the Grid Deployment Office and the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains, among others, dismantling core teams responsible for scaling clean power, strengthening the grid, and advancing domestic manufacturing.
Impact: The reorganization makes the administration’s priorities unmistakably clear: doing the fossil fuel industry’s bidding by sidelining the tools created to expand the clean, cheap energy that could actually lower bills. The eliminated offices were responsible for deploying cost-saving clean technologies, supporting state energy-efficiency efforts, modernizing the grid, and overseeing billions in investments for batteries and manufacturing. While some functions may be shuffled elsewhere, it’s clear that Trump’s assault on clean energy is continuing full steam. At the same time, the administration is aggressively fast-tracking energy-hungry data centers, guaranteeing a surge in electricity demand. But instead of scaling the cheapest, fastest-to-build power needed to meet it, Trump’s DOE is sabotaging renewables and locking working families into higher utility bills for years to come.
November 19: Trump intervenes again to force expired Michigan coal plant to continue operating
Action: For the third time, Trump’s DOE intervened to keep Michigan’s aging, polluting, and expensive J.H. Campbell coal plant operating on life support. Energy Secretary Chris Wright claimed the move was necessary for “lowering energy costs” and preventing blackouts.
Impact: That claim doesn’t hold up. The plant’s operator spent years planning its retirement and securing replacement power—clear evidence that the facility is no longer needed for reliability. Retiring the plant was projected to save ratepayers an estimated $600 million through 2040. Instead, Trump’s repeated interventions have already cost roughly $113 million, with the full knowledge that those costs would be passed directly onto customers. The utility confirmed that DOE’s order laid out a “clear path” to shift the plant’s operating costs onto ratepayers and that there is no end in sight to the mandate. Every day this political stunt continues, families are struck covering the bill (about $615,000 per day) to keep the uneconomic plant running long past its retirement date. There’s no sugarcoating it: Trump is forcing Americans to subsidize the dying coal industry, no matter the cost.
November 3: DOE opens up $100 million in bailout money to extend the life of costly, dangerous coal plants
Action: Just one month after the Trump administration rolled out an all-of-government effort to prop up America’s dying coal industry, the DOE announced it would distribute up to $100 million in grants to refurbish coal-fired power plants.
Impact: Trump can try to give the coal industry an extravagant makeover, but you can’t put lipstick on a pig. Reviving the nation’s aging coal fleet would require billions of dollars, making this $100 million bailout little more than a down payment on failure. As Energy Innovation’s Michelle Solomon put it, the administration would be “literally burning that money.” Coal’s decline is driven by market forces as alternative sources, including cheaper clean energy, have outcompeted the expensive, outdated, and volatile fuel source. Under Trump, the only way to keep coal alive is to force someone else to pay for it, and that means higher bills for American families.
October 28: HHS Secretary Kennedy directs CDC to study wind farm “harms” based on fringe conspiracies
Action: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to launch an official inquiry into alleged “harms” from offshore wind turbines—claims that scientists and public health experts have repeatedly debunked.
Impact: Trump has been “extremely transparent” that he believes wind energy is a “scam.” So it’s no surprise he would weaponize public health agencies to investigate baseless fringe conspiracies his quack Health Secretary himself spread about offshore wind farms. The move is part of Trump’s broader approach to unravel the industry: flood the zone with nonsense, create uncertainty and delay, and chill investment until projects stall or collapse. The result, one offshore wind executive told POLITICO, “is a destruction of the industry.” As POLITICO noted, regardless of Trump’s future stance toward the industry, it’s unclear if more offshore wind projects will ever receive the green light, as companies will be wary of ever investing in the U.S. again. That means fewer wind projects coming online, less affordable clean power on the grid, and higher electricity prices for households already struggling with rising bills.
October 22: Trump denies disaster aid for rural Michigan utilities, hiking costs by at least $4,500 per household
Action: Trump rejected a request for federal disaster aid to help two nonprofit electric cooperatives in rural northern Michigan rebuild power infrastructure after a devastating March ice storm. The denial came despite FEMA documenting $90 million in damage to utility infrastructure, nearly five times the threshold to qualify for aid, and despite the storm’s primary impact being that damage.
Impact: Without federal assistance, those costs will be passed directly onto ratepayers. In a letter appealing the denial, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer warned Trump that households could face rate hikes of at least $4,500 per customer, with both cooperatives already imposing new monthly surcharges and rate increases just to service emergency loans. These are rural, working-class communities that overwhelmingly voted for Trump, who are now being forced to bankroll disaster recovery on their own. Trump’s aid denial has shifted the burden of tens of millions of dollars in repair costs that previous presidents of both parties have historically authorized onto families already struggling to make ends meet. Electricity rates are “already high” and “we’re not millionaires,” one local resident told POLITICO. “We’re just looking to survive,” said another. Meanwhile, Trump just guaranteed sharply higher utility bills for years to come.
October 20: DOE cancels more than $700 million in battery and manufacturing projects
Action: The DOE canceled more than $700 million in previously awarded grants for battery storage and advanced manufacturing projects. These investments were intended to strengthen grid reliability, build domestic supply chains, and support electric vehicle battery production.
Impact: Battery storage is one of the fastest, most cost-effective tools available to address rising energy costs. States like Texas have shown what’s possible: by pairing battery storage with solar, the state reduced reliance on expensive gas plants and kept electricity costs down. According to an American Clean Power Association analysis, the state’s addition of 5 GW of storage last year (enough capacity to power roughly 5.5 million homes for an hour) contributed to $750 million in energy cost savings for Texans. Canceling these projects delays urgently needed storage supply chain capacity, making it harder to meet surging demand without leaning more heavily on volatile fossil fuels like “natural” gas, whose costs have nearly doubled since Trump took office and are poised to rise further. The result is a grid that’s less reliable and more expensive, and those costs are inevitably passed on to households.
October 10: DOI halts development of the largest solar project in the U.S.
Action: The Department of the Interior (DOI) halted permitting for what would have been the largest solar-and-battery project in U.S. history on federal land in Nevada. The project had already completed an extensive environmental review and was designed to demonstrate a faster, more streamlined permitting model for large-scale clean energy. While DOI now claims it did not “cancel” the project—seven individual solar-and-storage developments that banded together under a single review—its actions effectively froze the effort. Each project would now have to seek separate approvals, including personal sign-off from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who has not approved a single solar or wind energy project since imposing a new political review process.
Impact: This project would have delivered massive amounts of low-cost electricity at a moment when demand is surging and prices are rising nationwide. Halting it sends a chilling message to investors, delays desperately needed supply, and forces utilities to rely more heavily on expensive fossil fuels instead. Once again, Trump is sacrificing affordability to wage an ideological war on clean energy, leaving families to pay higher bills as a result.
Trump’s Self-Imposed Deadline is Here. So Is His Self-Inflicted Energy Crisis.
Trump set the terms himself: within one year, he said, he would cut energy costs in half. Instead, he’s spent that year waging an all-out assault on the cheapest, fastest-to-build clean energy that could have delivered affordable power to American homes—driving utility bills higher and creating an entirely avoidable energy crisis.
As 2025 comes to a close, Trump isn’t offering families any relief. But he is offering denial. While households feel the mounting pressure from rising energy bills, the president dismisses affordability concerns as a “con job” and insists there’s no problem at all. Meanwhile, his own policies are choking off energy supply. Energy-hungry data center demand is surging. Utilities are seeking massive rate hikes. And clean energy projects that could lower costs are being stalled or scrapped. At every turn, Trump has chosen to protect fossil fuel profits and enrich his biggest donors, no matter the cost to working families.
The truth is, Trump’s energy agenda was never about lowering costs for families. It’s doing exactly what it was designed to do: boosting Big Oil profits at the expense of American households. Turns out the promise was the con job all along.
For more information or to speak with a policy expert, please contact Evergreen Action Communications Director Seth Nelson at seth@evergreenaction.com.
Find previous actions Trump has taken to hike energy prices and make life less affordable for American families here.
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