Electricity prices are surging across the United States, and the issue is quickly becoming one of the most politically charged topics of 2025. Despite campaign promises to slash energy bills, Americans are facing escalating costs, with households from New Jersey to Georgia feeling the pinch. At the heart of this crisis are the mounting pressures of modernizing an aging power grid, the explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, and fierce political battles over the nation’s energy future.
For two decades, electricity demand in the U.S. held steady. But that’s changed dramatically. According to Earthjustice, demand is now soaring, driven in no small part by AI companies racing to build massive data centers. These facilities can use as much electricity as a small city, and their energy appetite is forcing utilities to invest billions in new generation and upgraded transmission lines. The result? Consumers are footing the bill, with rate hikes arriving at an unprecedented pace.
In Georgia, the consequences of these trends have been especially stark. On November 5, 2025, voters delivered a clear message by unseating two Republican utility commissioners, a move widely seen as a backlash against rising electricity rates and the Trump administration’s aggressive push for nuclear power. As reported by Reuters, Democrats Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard each won more than 60% of the vote, flipping seats that had been held by Republicans for decades. Both campaigned on promises to prioritize fair electric rates and expand renewable energy, tapping into voters’ frustration after Georgia Power customers saw their summer electric bills jump 41% to nearly $190 per month compared to just four years earlier.
“Georgia electric customers are getting electric bills that look like monthly car payments,” Patty Durand, director of Georgians for Affordable Energy, told Reuters. The pain is widespread: electricity rates in Georgia have increased six times in the past two years, according to campaign platforms and state surveys.
What’s fueling these relentless increases? There’s plenty of blame to go around. Earthjustice points to the Trump administration’s support for expensive fossil fuels and the cancellation of clean energy projects. The group says that while renewable energy like wind and solar—paired with batteries—has become the cheapest way to generate reliable electricity, the administration has been blocking permits and cutting funding for these projects. Instead, federal policies have propped up aging coal and gas plants, even issuing “emergency” orders to keep uneconomic facilities running past their planned retirements. According to an analysis by Grid Strategies for Earthjustice, these decisions could cost Americans more than $3 billion per year.
One striking example comes from Michigan, where a utility announced in late October that keeping the J.H. Campbell coal plant open through September 30 would cost $80 million. Multiply that by dozens of similar plants nationwide, and it’s easy to see why bills are climbing.
But the story doesn’t end with fossil fuels. Nuclear power, often touted as a clean and reliable alternative, has created its own set of financial headaches. Georgia’s Vogtle nuclear reactors, for instance, were supposed to cost $14 billion and be completed years ago. Instead, they ran nearly seven years behind schedule and ballooned to a staggering $35 billion, as Georgia regulators confirmed. A 2023 report to the Georgia Public Service Commission estimated that customers would pay an additional $36 billion to $43 billion over the reactors’ 60-year lifespan, compared to gas-fired alternatives. The Trump administration’s recent $80 billion deal to buy more nuclear reactors from Westinghouse—the same company involved in the Vogtle debacle—has only heightened concerns.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act had offered incentives for renewable energy, but many were repealed by congressional Republicans. As Newsweek notes, Republicans argue that the cost of building out renewables is driving rate spikes, while Democrats blame the repeal of clean energy incentives. Yet, nonpartisan experts say the biggest driver of higher prices is the cost of upgrading the grid itself—much of which is aging or has been battered by wildfires, hurricanes, and years of deferred maintenance.
Layered atop these infrastructure woes is the AI revolution. The construction of new data centers is ramping up power demand at a pace the grid simply wasn’t built to handle. Some estimates suggest that by 2030, data centers could require the equivalent output of 30 nuclear reactors. In Virginia, which leads the country in data center construction, residents are bracing for major rate hikes, even after a relatively modest 3% increase last year.
As the cost of electricity becomes a top-tier political issue, it’s shaping elections and policy debates nationwide. In New Jersey, Democrat Mikie Sherrill made freezing electric rates a central plank of her successful gubernatorial campaign, drawing loud applause for her pledge to protect consumers. According to Newsweek, utility bills in the state rose 17% to 20% this past summer, and there’s evidence that power shutoffs for non-payment are on the rise nationally.
With both parties pointing fingers, the politics of blame are complicated. A recent New Jersey poll found that most voters blamed utility companies themselves for rising rates, with fewer pointing to state or federal officials. Republicans often cite renewables as the culprit, while Democrats argue that fossil fuel subsidies and repealed clean energy incentives are to blame. But as Newsweek observes, both sides have some truth to their arguments, and the real solution may lie in demanding that tech companies pay their fair share for the grid upgrades their data centers require.
Earthjustice attorneys are already pushing for this approach, arguing before public utility commissions that data centers should be classified as a new customer class and held responsible for the costs they impose. They warn that tech giants often negotiate secretive, discounted power deals with utilities—deals that can shift costs onto regular households. “We need to upgrade our grid with clean energy and ensure tech companies pay their fair share instead of raising electricity rates,” Earthjustice insists.
Some tech firms have begun building their own private energy plants for data centers, but there’s growing support for tying future approvals to requirements that companies help fund public grid enhancements and invest in renewable sources. This strategy, advocates say, could ease the burden on everyday consumers and support the transition to cleaner, cheaper power in the long run.
As Americans open their electric bills each month, the debate over who should pay for the nation’s energy future is only getting more urgent. With voters already making their voices heard at the ballot box, politicians and regulators alike are under pressure to find solutions that balance affordability, reliability, and the need for a cleaner grid. The stakes have never been higher—or the costs more personal.
