The start of a new month often brings familiar paperwork and, lately, a shock. Across the U.S., households are finding their electricity bills climbing higher than at any time in recent years. In Pembroke Pines, Fla., Al Salvi, who's 63 and uses a wheelchair, says he now pays close to $500 a month.
"Seniors down here that are living check to check, now we got to decide whether we're going to pay the electric bill or buy medication," he told NPR's Scott Horsley.
Energy prices have risen roughly twice as fast as overall inflation since the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase is not driven only by volatile fuel markets or the political fight over renewable energy.
To understand what's behind the growing cost, Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep spoke with Robinson Meyer, founding executive editor of Heatmap News and a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. Meyer says the nation's power crunch comes from structural problems. At Heatmap, he wrote that President Trump's promise to cut electricity rates in half is unrealistic. While the Trump administration may be worsening the crisis, its roots long predate the president, according to Meyer.
The grid is older and more expensive to rebuild
"The biggest driver of the run-up in electricity prices over the past four or five years is the grid itself," Meyer said.
While power plants get most of the political attention, it's the local distribution network of poles and wires — the "last mile" that carries electricity to homes and businesses — that has become a financial burden. Many of those lines were built nearly a century ago.
In some places, utilities are rebuilding them after hurricanes, wildfires or floods. In others, they're replacing decaying equipment. And increasingly, new lines must be buried underground or reinforced to prevent future disasters.
"It's a cost of climate change," Meyer said. "We've had the grid for a long time, and it's time for those systems to be replaced. And unfortunately, they're beginning to be replaced at the same time as we're seeing rising electricity demand for the first time in the U.S. in a generation."
New power users are stretching the system
For the first time in decades, America's demand for electricity is climbing. That surge is being driven by electric vehicles, a resurgent manufacturing sector and data centers built to power artificial intelligence.
"The headline driver is this boom in data center construction and AI," Meyer said, while noting that both of these are more recent developments.
"The other things driving electricity demand are population growth and economic growth. … People are getting richer and they're using more electricity."
Who should pay?
He also pointed to the growing use of EVs, which require charging into the power grid, and a push from across the political spectrum for more U.S. manufacturing, which also drives higher power demand.
These new users, from data centers to electric-car owners to factories, are forcing utilities to expand capacity, build new substations and purchase more power: costs that are being spread across everyone's bills.
Meyer said regulators and states are grappling with how to keep costs fair.
"In the New Jersey governor's race, electricity prices have become a huge deal," he said. "And while I don't think electricity prices are increasing in most areas right now because of AI, I do think there is a good case that AI is driving some of the electricity prices in New Jersey specifically, and data centers specifically."
Traditionally, utilities built out the grid to meet demand from all users, who in turn shared the cost.
But that model may no longer work. "Right now, given that just a few customers are driving so much more electricity demand," Meyer said, "utilities and states are trying to figure out how we can meet that demand while not having absolutely everyone else pay much higher costs to build the infrastructure needed to service those facilities."
It's unlikely that energy demand is nearing any kind of plateau, according to Meyer. Wall Street's enthusiasm for AI will keep companies spending on new data centers, which need a source of power.
The broadcast version of this interview was edited by Taylor Haney, and the digital version was edited by Olivia Hampton.
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