Washington, D.C. — Despite President Trump’s promises to lower energy costs, the Republican reconciliation bill is forcing American families to pay higher energy bills and killing American jobs, all while ceding our competitive edge to China and increasing the risk of blackouts and brownouts by undermining America’s energy capacity and grid reliability.

The Republican reconciliation bill will create energy scarcity and unreliability at the worst possible time. With energy demand surging due to AI, data centers, and extreme weather, 93 percent of all new electricity capacity last year came from solar, wind, and batteries. Because of this disastrous bill, Republicans are guaranteeing higher utility bills for families and businesses nationwide.

National

Financial Times: US utilities plot big rise in electricity rates as data centre demand booms 

US power providers are seeking to impose big price increases on consumers following booming data centre demand, sparking debate over who should pay for the electricity burden of artificial intelligence. 

Utilities have sought regulatory approval for $29bn in rate increases in the first half of 2025, a 142 per cent increase over the same period a year ago, according to a new report by PowerLines, an energy affordability advocacy group.

These increases highlight the question of whether surging electricity costs will be shared among all consumers, or charged directly to the large industrial users driving the new demand. Power consumption is expected to more than double in the next decade because of energy-intensive AI, according to BloombergNEF.

“What we’re . . . seeing is a deer-in-headlights dynamic,” said PowerLines executive director Charles Hua. “A lot of states don’t have a playbook for how they can meet rising [data centre] demand while balancing affordability and utility bills.”

The Guardian: Trump promised to lower energy costs – his tax bill will raise them for people in red states the most 

The cost of electricity is poised to surge across the US in the wake of Republican legislation that takes an axe to cheap renewable energy, with people in states who voted for Donald Trump last year to be hardest hit by the increase in bills.

As air conditioners crank up across the US during another sweltering summer amid an unfolding climate crisis, rising energy costs will become even more severe for households due to the reconciliation spending bill passed by Republicans in Congress and signed by Trump, who called it the “big, beautiful bill”, on 4 July.

By stripping away support for cheap solar and wind energy production, the legislation is set to cause electricity rates paid by families and businesses, many already struggling to pay their bills, to rise by much as 18% by 2035, according to an analysis by Energy Innovation, an energy and climate policy thinktank.

Newsweek: GOP Budget Could Increase Energy Bills for Millions of Americans” 

Fewer clean energy projects will be commissioned or reach completion as a result of the Republican tax bill pushed through Congress, potentially raising energy bills for millions, according to experts who spoke with Newsweek.

“This bill will raise energy prices for all Americans,” said Harry Godfrey, the managing director and head of federal engagement at Advanced Energy United, an industry association representing renewable power companies in the U.S.

“No two ways about it,” he added. “This bill will kill clean energy projects, particularly wind and solar projects, in active development.”

NPR: Power prices are expected to soar under new tax cut and spending law 

The law that President Trump signed on July 4 ending tax incentives for wind and solar projects is expected to drive up electricity bills across the U.S., with some of the sharpest increases in Republican-led states, according to Energy Innovation, a nonpartisan think tank.

Without tax credits, the cost of wind and solar plants will go up. Companies are likely to respond by building fewer of those projects, and those facilities that do come online will have bigger price tags, according to multiple estimates. As that happens, the country is expected to generate more electricity from natural gas plants, which are often more expensive to run than wind and solar projects.

Business Observer: Insider: Elimination of solar tax credits will lead to job losses, price increases  

Solar industry entrepreneur Steve Rutherford believes the federal legislation dubbed the Big Beautiful Bill approved by Congress and signed into law July 4 will upend both the industry and his own business — costing jobs and slowing progress.

His biggest concern is the phasing out of a 30% tax credit. That was a major selling point in convincing people to go solar, making the transition more affordable to homeowners and businesses looking to capitalize on opportunities.

[…]

Rutherford, the owner of Tampa Bay Solar, a company that designs, builds and installs residential and commercial solar power systems, says the new rules will stifle the growth in the industry and cost him, and others, business. Not everyone, he says, will survive.

“I don’t see me closing shop in a year or two years, but I can tell you this, I will see a significant reduction in employees,” he says. The company, with annual revenue of more than $10 million, has 34 employees. (According to a June report from the Solar Energy Industries Association, eliminating the tax credit will lead to 21,800 industry job losses in Florida by 2030.)

In the States

Houston Chronicle: Texans could see rising energy costs as Trump’s new law slows clean energy

Less clean energy will be built in Texas as a result of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” signed into law by President Donald Trump on the Fourth of July, which could raise annual energy costs for everyday residents by hundreds of dollars in the coming years, industry associations and energy researchers say.

Most damaging to the clean energy industry is that the Big Beautiful Bill aggressively phases out federal tax credits for solar and wind projects, which were greatly expanded in former President Joe Biden’s signature climate legislation in 2022.

Clean energy developers will have a harder time raising money to build their projects if they can’t factor in the tax credits. Many projects may no longer make financial sense and could be abandoned altogether. 

“We are, in essence, pulling the rug out from underneath these projects,” said Harry Godfrey, a managing director at Advanced Energy United, a trade group for clean energy companies across the country. 

Arizona Mirror: Trump’s tax bill eliminates clean energy incentives, costing Arizona billions 

The “one big, beautiful bill” that Republicans crafted and President Donald Trump signed last week eliminates a number of incentives for clean energy that will directly lead to billions in lost investments for the state of Arizona and thousands of lost jobs. 

Trump’s $3.4 trillion deficit-boosting tax cut and spending package fulfills a number of his administration’s domestic policy priorities, including a major reversal on clean energy initiatives. 

In a letter to lawmakers on Capitol Hill while debate on the bill was still ongoing, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs urged them to vote no on it, citing in part the impact the rollbacks on clean energy initiatives would have on the state. In the letter, Hobbs cited the Arizona Commerce

Authority as identifying $58 billion in possible investments and 69,000 jobs that could be lost. 

“That is real capital and construction jobs that are just walking out the door,” Advanced Energy United’s Arizona lead Michael Barrio told the Arizona Mirror. 

Kiplinger: Why Your California Utility Bill Could Increase Under Trump’s Tax Plan 

California’s soaring electricity rates could get worse if Republicans pass their version of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending cuts megabill.

A new analysis warns that electricity bills for households in California could increase 7.2%, while business utility bills would spike as much as 8.5% over the next decade if Congress repeals clean-energy tax credits created by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

That’s because tucked within the partisan reconciliation bill are provisions that call for the construction of energy-related projects to begin within 60 days of the bill’s passage to receive a credit. Developments must produce electricity by the end of 2028 to be eligible for certain energy credits.

OPB: Under Trump’s new law, Oregon could lose big on solar and wind energy projects

Oregon could lose about 4 gigawatts of planned wind and solar energy, or enough energy to power one million homes, as the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill becomes law.

Solar developers said the law would almost certainly mean Oregon will not meet its goal of transitioning the power grid to 100% renewable energy by 2040 and are calling on state lawmakers to help developers get projects online sooner. 

“There’s a bunch of work to do now,” said David Brown, owner of Portland-based Obsidian Renewables. “People should be very focused on getting it done. There’s no point in spending any time or energy on a new project at this point.”

The Gazette: GOP Budget Could Increase Energy Bills for Millions of Americans 

Clean energy advocates warn Iowa stands to lose jobs and renewable energy project expansions, and businesses and households will see an increase in utility bills if Congress passes President Donald Trump’s budget reconciliation bill as is.

Iowa U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who represents southeast Iowa, made similar warnings to House Republican leaders urging them to maintain the Inflation Reduction Act’s energy tax credits.

Chicago Tribune: Illinois clean energy hit hard by Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ tax bill: ‘An incredibly damaging blow’ 

Already the calls are coming in at Chicago’s All Bright Solar. 

Customers want solar roofs installed on their homes — and they want them before a federal tax credit worth about $8,000 expires at the end of the year.

The repeal of that tax credit under President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is “pretty catastrophic” for residential solar, according to All Bright owner Lisa Albrecht, who expects demand to fall sharply. 

“I’ve been on the ‘solar-coaster’ for a long time, and this is the roughest ride,” said Albrecht, using a term for the dramatic highs and lows of the industry. “I’m definitely white-knuckling it. (Illinois) will lose jobs. We will lose installers.” 

Residential solar is particularly hard hit, but the president’s far-reaching budget bill, signed July 4, has dealt a mighty blow to Illinois’ clean energy overall, ending a tax credit of up to $7,500 for electric vehicle buyers, reducing access to tax credits for battery and solar panel manufacturers, slowing the construction of wind and solar farms and leaving $14 billion of announced clean energy investment statewide at higher risk for cancelation or downsizing.

Public News Service: Report: Cuts to clean energy will cost Colorado $7.3 billion in GDP

More than $7 billion in Colorado’s GDP and 9,600 jobs are projected to be lost under President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending bill which cuts incentives for clean energy, according to a new report by the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation.

Solar and wind capacity is expected to drop by 340 gigawatts, raising home energy costs by an extra $170 per year.

Margaret Kran-Annexstein, director of the Colorado chapter of the Sierra Club, said the new law reverses years of work transitioning to a clean energy economy.

“We have seen how investments in clean energy programs can attract more jobs, and can help people lower their electricity costs,” Kran-Annexstein pointed out.