Residents in at Least 41 States and Washington, D.C., Are Facing Increased Electric and Natural Gas Bills

Americans across the country are facing higher electric and gas bills. Electricity rates increased by nearly 7 percent from June 2024 to June 2025, and the Trump administration’s actions are exacerbating this upward trend. Despite President Donald Trump’s promise to lower energy costs, families and businesses across at least 41 states and Washington, D.C., are already experiencing electricity and natural gas bill increases, or will soon when utility companies’ proposed rate increases go into effect. Per Center for American Progress analysis, as of September 4, 2025, at least 102 gas and electric utilities have either raised or proposed higher rates that would go into effect in 2025 or 2026. Nearly 50 percent of the nation’s electricity utility customers (81 million) and more than one-third of natural gas customers (28 million) will be affected.^*

The current and proposed increases would raise electric bills by at least $67 billion and gas bills by at least $11 billion nationwide, based on CAP analysis of online filings by utilities and records of decisions in state public utilities commission dockets. Utility companies, including the Empire District Electric Co. (Missouri), Ameren Illinois, and New York State Electric and Gas have some of the highest electricity rate increases proposed or already in effect. Many utilities are hiking rates to cover rising gas costs and expensive pipelines. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has actively suppressed the build-out of clean energy projects that are both cheaper and faster to deploy than fossil fuels.

Americans in at least 41 states are seeing utility rate increases

In the past year, electricity prices have increased more than twice as fast as the rate of inflation. Major factors such as surging demand from data centers that provide artificial intelligence (AI) services, the need to upgrade grid infrastructure to meet the challenges of extreme weather, higher natural gas prices, and restrictions on new sources of clean energy are all affecting electricity rates. Utility companies also cited the need to upgrade their aging infrastructure in more than half of the rate increases CAP analyzed. The cost of building out grid infrastructure has gone up in recent years, especially as the United States has a short supply of transformers, which connect circuits on the grid and keep electricity flowing consistently. This problem is expected to worsen as a result of the Trump administration’s tariffs, as 80 percent of the United States’ transformers are imported.

Data center energy demand and utility company profits

The speed and scale of increased demand from AI data centers are placing unprecedented pressure on electrical grids—interconnected networks that deliver power from producers to families and businesses. A U.S. Department of Energy study found that data centers consumed about 4.4 percent of total U.S. electricity in 2023, but are expected to consume approximately 6.7 percent to 12 percent by 2028. This growing demand is forcing some utilities to invest in updating aging infrastructure and adding capacity at a faster rate than originally planned. As a result, some utilities may be passing the costs of Big Tech growth on to American households and small businesses.

For example, in Virginia, home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers, Dominion Energy proposed raising the average customer’s electric bill by $21 a month by 2027. About half of that increase went into effect in July 2025.  The rate increase means the company will raise an additional $2.5 billion in total revenue over the next two years, CAP analysis shows. One of the stated reasons for the increase is to continue investing in grid reliability. The company has also requested an increase in its allowed return on equity—increasing profits for shareholders at customers’ expense. And Dominion Energy is not alone: Dozens of utilities cited increasing shareholders’ returns as a reason to request rate increases, according to the CAP analysis.

Climate disasters and extreme weather

Utilities in several states, including Florida and California, are facing damages to infrastructure from extreme weather disasters or wildfires. This additional cost burden on utilities is likely to become increasingly common and more onerous as the climate crisis intensifies and again is made worse by the Trump administration’s actions to defund climate science and weather information and to remove greenhouse gas emissions limits.

Higher natural gas prices

Another reason for the increase in Americans’ energy bills is the increase in the past year in the nation’s wholesale electricity prices, which rose by around 40 percent. This is a direct result of rising natural gas prices, which the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects to double in the United States between 2024 and 2026. Utilities such as Unitil Energy Systems Inc. (New Hampshire) and National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp. (Pennsylvania) have cited rising fuel costs as justification for their rate increases.

The Trump administration’s restrictions on sources of clean energy are exacerbating rising electricity and natural gas bills

The Trump administration’s actions over the past eight months are exacerbating rising rates, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which President Trump signed into law in July, is likely to increase utility bills even further. Combined, the Trump administration’s actions will make it difficult to bring new clean energy onto the grid at a time when the U.S. energy demand is expected to skyrocket.

Already, almost one-third of energy developers say they plan to suspend or cancel projects as a result of the OBBBA, which will lead to energy costs increasing for everyone. The effects have been nearly immediate: Since the OBBBA’s passage, the average cost of U.S. wind and solar power purchase agreements has increased by 4 percent as buyers rush to meet their clean energy procurement goals. Renewable energy sources such as solar and onshore wind are generally the least expensive and fastest to deploy energy sources in the United States. But as America builds fewer clean energy projects and energy demand increases, more expensive energy sources such as fossil fuels will have to fill the gap, driving up overall energy costs.

Conclusion

American families are facing higher costs for essentials at every turn, from health care costs to food and groceries to utility bills—not just due to circumstances out of the government’s control, but also as a result of the Trump administration’s policies that decrease supply of clean and affordable energy.

CAP plans to continue tracking utility rate hikes across the country. If your energy bill has increased and it is not reflected in the tracker, please fill out this form.

The authors would like to thank Jasia Smith, Leo Banks, Cody Hankerson, Alia Hidayat, and Mariel Lutz of the Center for American Progress for their contributions to this analysis.

* Rate hikes in the 41 states plus the District of Columbia will affect 80.6 million of the United States’ 164 million electric utility customers and 27.8 million of the country’s 79 million natural gas utility customers.

Methodology

The electric and natural gas utilities listed in the tracker, and the associated increases in rates, were identified through online filings by utilities and records of decisions in state public utilities commission (PUC) dockets. The list includes rate increases that went into effect January 2025 onwards. The list is not comprehensive and will be periodically updated with additional rate increases from across the country.

Each state’s public utility commission has different requirements for reporting data related to rate increases, bill impacts, distributional impacts, monthly increases, and justification for increases. The number of customers—including residential, commercial, industrial, etc.— affected by rate increases, column D, was collected as reported directly on utilities’ websites, in investor presentations, or in press releases. In some instances, rate increases affected only a portion of the customer base in a utility’s service territory and was reported by the utility through press releases or in the docket filings.

The time periods for increases, column E, were collected using utilities’ press releases, webpages, and docket filings from public utilities commissions. The time periods for increases fell into three categories: 1) increase in annual revenues, in which utilities did not specify a time period for the rate increase and instead requested or were approved to increase their annual revenue requirements until the next time the utility files and is approved for additional revenues; 2) specific time periods, in which single-year, part-year, and multiyear periods were explicitly mentioned in filing documents, press releases, or utility webpages; or 3) calendar years, such as 2025 or 2026. Some utilities did not specify whether the rate increase was annual or for a specific time period. The authors used the best available information from the utility to assign a time period.

The effective date and status for rate increases, columns I and J, respectively, were also collected using utility press releases, utility and PUC webpages, and docket filings. In most cases, authors were able to identify a specific date, month, or year from which a rate increase would be effective. In some instances, the request for a rate increase was ongoing and did not specify an effective date. The authors made a conservative estimate based on available information including expected decision dates or expected effective dates, such as “early 2026” or “second half of 2026,” to adopt an effective date.

The total revenue increase in column F was calculated based on revenue increases reported by utility websites or press releases, in news articles only when provided with a direct quote from a utility spokesperson, or from docket filings. The total revenue numbers include additional revenues to be recovered from all customer classes including residential, commercial, and industrial. Not all utilities reported an increase in revenue as a result of increased utility prices, and not all utilities reported monthly average bill impacts even when there was an increase in revenue and/or rate of return.

Since the time periods for revenue increases were not aligned across utilities, the authors calculated an estimated total additional revenue generated starting in January 2025 through the end of 2028, assuming that rates remained steady after the covered period. This methodology likely results in an underestimate of revenues for the time period because utilities often file for additional rate recovery to begin in the next cycle after the covered period, thus increasing utilities’ revenues beyond what authors estimated. Revenue estimates were calculated using the additional revenues reported by the utilities, the time period for increase (column E), and effective date for increase (column I). The time period for implementation of most revenue increases is before December 31, 2028, and the authors assumed that revenue increases during the effective time period for an increase continued until the end of 2028. Revenue increases prior to 2025 were not included in the totals. In cases where the implementation period stopped before December 31, 2028, revenues were prorated for the remainder of the four-year time period in order to standardize the data. For example, Ameren Missouri was approved for additional annual revenues of $355 million effective starting September 2025. To estimate the total revenue through the end of 2028, authors assumed an annual increase of $355 million for each year starting September 2025 through September 2028, and then calculated partial revenues for the remaining four months in 2028 at the rate of $355 million per year.

The monthly percentage increase (column G) and the dollar amount increase (column H) to the average residential bill were collected through utility webpages, press releases, news articles only when they included a direct quote from a utility spokesperson, or from docket filings. In the case of multiyear increases, when utilities reported multiple increases to residential bills through the time period, authors reported the total increase in monthly bills, when available. When percentage increases were not reported, but the appropriate data were available, authors calculated a percentage increase across the relevant time periods.

The authors prioritized using primary sources for the revenue increase, monthly increases, time periods, and effective dates. In some instances, these values were not publicly reported by the utility or the PUC and are labeled as “N/A.” The authors note that this does not necessarily mean that there is no associated increase in revenues, customer bills, etc., but represents a lack of public data from the utility or PUC.