Electricity prices have risen by 10% in Mass. These pols want Trump to take action

With the winter heating season closing in, two Massachusetts lawmakers are calling on President Donald Trump to tackle rising electricity prices.

“You promised that you would cut energy prices for American families. Instead, they are struggling more than ever under your watch,” Democratic U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey wrote in a Friday letter to the Republican president.

“To lower costs, your administration should restore funding to thousands of energy projects slated to add much-needed supply to the grid, reverse costly fossil fuel plant mandates, and ensure the public continues to have access to the energy bill assistance they deserve,” Warren and Markey, joined by U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told Trump.

While it’s indisputable that Americans have seen their electric bills rise over the last few years, the reasons for the spike vary, and not every state faces the same set of circumstances, The New York Times reported, citing a recent study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Over the past six years, the average retail price of electricity has risen faster than inflation in 26 states. But rates have stayed flat or even declined in the rest of the country, the Times reported.

In Massachusetts, for instance, researchers found electricity prices have risen by 10.1% when comparing the period between September 2018 to August 2019 to the same period this year.

Trump, who ran on a promise to slash electric bills by half within 18 months, has blamed wind and solar power for the rising costs, according to The Times.

Democrats have argued that Trump’s opposition to renewable energy is making things worse. Others point to the rise of electricity-devouring data centers, the newspaper reported.

In their letter, Warren, Markey and Merkley pointed to new data by the nonprofit Climate Power that they say proves that administration policies have conspired to drive up costs and slash jobs.

“As a result of these and other actions, energy costs have forced millions of middle-class families into ‘energy poverty,’” the three lawmakers wrote. “This is the wrong approach, and you should reverse course and provide Americans with the help they need to reduce energy costs, instead of making this crisis worse.”

Meanwhile, rising prices and government data that undercuts Trump’s claims about wind and solar energy could prove to be a political problem in the 2026 midterm elections, The Washington Examiner and Politico separately reported.

In a statement to The Guardian, which first reported the letter, a White House spokesperson dismissed the Democratic lawmakers’ complaints.

“Democrats should spend less time writing letters, and more time reversing their green energy policies that drove electricity prices up,” the spokesperson, Taylor Rogers, said, adding that blue states “continue to have higher electricity prices because of their obsession with unreliable and costly green energy sources like wind and solar.”