Americans’ Energy Costs are Rising. You Can Blame Trump and Big Tech

Published August 26th, 2025 by Time Magazine

Written by Anisha Steephen

On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump vowed to cut Americans’ energy costs in half by the end of his first year in office. Instead, Americans' energy costs are skyrocketing.

As a result, millions of Americans are sweating through heatwaves and opening electricity bills that feel just as scorching. It’s what I call a “heatwave economy,” in which extreme heat collides with corporate-driven utility price spikes, and working families foot the bill while trillion-dollar tech companies profit.

Across 13 states, residential customers are seeing their electricity prices rise by $17 to $27 per month. That’s more than $300 a year in extra household costs on energy alone. The culprit isn’t just your air conditioning. AI data centers are consuming record amounts of energy, driving up electricity prices, and straining an already fragile energy grid. So far this year, utilities have requested $29 billion in rate hikes as a direct response to AI demand.