How Trump's promise to slash energy bills in half has failed across the US

"Donald Trump has comprehensively failed to meet a key election promise to slash Americans' energy bills in half within the first year of his presidency, with power prices instead surging across the US. The average household electricity bill in the US was 6.7% more expensive in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to a Guardian analysis of data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Department of Energy's statistical arm. The increases meant that, on average, US households paid nearly $116 more across 2025 than they did in 2024."

"The power bill increases have been extreme in many parts of the US, with residents of Washington DC experiencing the biggest increase, a 23% jump in electricity costs, followed by Indiana, with a 17% rise, and then Illinois, with a 15% increase, the EIA data shows. The midwest is the region of the US that has been hit by the steepest bill rises, which include utility costs laden on top of an underlying 4.9% average increase in the unit cost of the electricity itself. Map of electricity expenditure across the US On top of soaring electricity bills, US households have also been confronted by rising gas prices, which have jumped 5.2% on average in the past year, according to the EIA. As a result, there has been a spike in power disconnections for unpaid bills across many states in New York the rate of disconnections rose fivefold from a year previous with some households having to forgo other essentials in order to keep the lights on."

Average US household electricity bills rose 6.7% in 2025 compared with 2024, translating to nearly $116 more per household over the year. Washington DC saw the largest increase at 23%, followed by Indiana (17%) and Illinois (15%), while the Midwest faced the steepest overall rises. The unit cost of electricity averaged a 4.9% underlying increase, and household gas prices rose about 5.2% year-on-year. Rising energy costs coincided with a spike in power disconnections for unpaid bills in multiple states, with New York reporting a fivefold increase and some households foregoing essentials to pay utilities.

Read at www.theguardian.com