Bipartisan agreement is unusual these days, so it’s hard to ignore when it occurs. It turns out that electricity costs worry US consumers across party lines, according to new survey data from PowerLines.
Whether political figures get this and make it an issue remains to be seen. But PowerLines, a nonpartisan consumer education nonprofit organization, offers some compelling data that might invigorate the discussion.
There is a lot to unpack about consumer attitudes from a survey the organization released this week. After polling roughly 2,000 US adults involved in paying household utility bills, the group found that:
- Nearly two in three (63%) billpayers indicate that their electric and gas utility bills are adding to their financial stress.
- Four of five adults surveyed said they feel like they are powerless to control how much they are charged for electricity or gas services.
- Less than half say their state government does a good job protecting their interests when it comes to regulating our local electrical or gas utilities.
“These results hold consistent across political parties, with 74% of Democrats, 71% of Republicans, and 74% of Independents reporting concern over rising utility bills,” said Mallory Newall, vice president of public polling at Ipsos, which conducted the survey in March.
Is their angst justified? A separate white paper issued by PowerLines says it is. Utilities requested or received approval for rate increases totaling $20 billion the first quarter of 2025 alone. By comparison, they won approval for $4.4 billion in rate increases in 2022 and $9.7 billion in 2023.
States have regulatory bodies – typically called public utilities commissions — that oversee utility rates. But most people are unaware of their work, which is largely opaque and highly technical.
In an Energy Changemakers podcast this week, Charles Hua, PowerLines founder and executive director, described public utilities commissions as the “Supreme Court” of the electricity world – “the refs that ultimately determine decisions of importance.”
But few consumers or even people who work in energy are investigating whether the system still works or how to change it, he said. Hua formed PowerLines to take on the task of helping states get consumers more involved.
Data centers accelerate electricity cost worries
State lawmakers and local officials in some parts of the country are starting to take greater notice of electricity rates because of the rise of data center development, especially in Virginia. Data centers use a lot of power and concern exists that households and businesses will foot the bill for new utility infrastructure to serve the demand.
Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School, and, Eliza Martin, a legal fellow, offered good reason for the concern in an Energy Changmakers livestream earlier this month. The pair recently published a paper, “Extracting Profits from the Public: How Utility Ratepayers are Paying for Big Tech Power.”
Peskoe noted regulators historically socialized infrastructure costs among all ratepayers, which made sense when growth in electricity consumption was incremental.
It ceases to make sense however when “growth is being driven by the very intensive energy use of just a few identifiable customers who happen to be some of the wealthiest corporations in the world,” Peskoe said.
Eyes on utility CEO compensation
Another move to increase visibility came this week from the Energy and Policy Institute. The watchdog group published the salaries of the top paid utility executives. The highest paid CEO on the list was Southern Company’s Christopher Womack who earned $23,885,173, followed by:
- NextEra Energy’s John Ketchum $21,603,598
- Sempra Energy’s Jeffrey Martin, $21,513,802
- Duke Energy’s Lynn Good, $21,281,982
- Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s Gregory Abel, $21,017,250
- PG&E’s Patricia Poppe; $15,823,939
- Consolidated Edison’s Timothy Cawley, $14,984,213
- Exelon’s Calvin Butler, $14,662,925
- Edison International’s Pedro Pizarro, $13,809,571
The argument for distributed energy
Distributed energy offers an alternative for consumers who want to escape utility rates. But you’ll find few distributed energy advocates cheering on rising electricity costs, obscure regulatory proceedings, or disenfranchised consumers. In the electric power sector, regulation drives energy markets and innovation, especially state regulation. Players want certainty and clarity. Good energy policy makes it easier for everyone to thrive wherever and however they operate on the electric grid.