Danielle Kayebusiness reporter
Christy Hallowell recently lost her job when her energy bill unexpectedly tripled to $1,800 a month.
Unable to pay, her gas and electricity were cut off and she, her two children and her mother spent six months of last year relying on a generator for lights and heat in their home.
The 44-year-old is one of millions of Americans who have fallen behind on their energy bills as prices soared last year.
Power is now back on at her home in Greenwood Lake, New York, after a local nonprofit helped her reach an agreement with the utility to accept partial payment.
But the gas is still shut off and electricity bills are rising this winter, leaving her fearful of another power outage. She said she now owed about $3,000 in utility debt.
“It’s been painful, to say the least,” he said.
According to a recent report, almost one in 20 households are at risk of having their utility debt sent to collections over the winter months.
An analysis of consumer credit data compiled by the Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers showed that the number of households with seriously overdue utility debt increased by 3.8% in the first six months of Trump’s second term.
Residential energy bills have emerged as a major cost-of-living concern among US consumers, as many are burdened by rising prices and US President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy.
Official economic data for November showed electricity prices rose 6.9% from a year earlier – much faster than overall inflation.
Trump, who said during his campaign that he would cut energy bills in half, has claimed that costs are falling. “Costs are going down under the Trump administration, helped greatly by gasoline and energy,” he posted on social media in November.
The White House has blamed former President Joe Biden and the interest rates of the US central bank for the current economic crisis.
But given Democratic victories in recent state and city elections and declining consumer confidence, the Trump administration has shifted its messaging to a focus on affordability, seeking to ease voters’ concerns about the cost of living in America.
Also, the federal government has proposed cutting the amount of money it gives states to help low-income residents pay their utility bills.
Experts also warn that the Trump administration’s rollback of clean energy projects — including a recent decision to halt leasing for offshore wind energy projects being built near the Atlantic coast — could push power bills even higher.
“This is going to be a big deal, both as a policy matter and a political matter,” said Alex Jacquez, head of policy and advocacy at the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic think tank.
Laurie Wheelock, executive director of the Public Utility Law Project of New York, said that many of her clients – low-income utility customers in New York state seeking help with their bills – have sidelined utilities as rent, health insurance and other costs are becoming more expensive.
Ms. Wheelock said that in 2025, the nonprofit sees an increase in utility account terminations for unpaid bills.
Before the pandemic, customers who contacted the organization typically owed $400 to $900 in utility debt. Now, he said, people often owe more than $6,000.
“It’s been a tough mix of increased costs and financial instability,” he said.
According to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, winter heating costs are expected to increase 9.2% this season due to rising electricity and natural gas prices and unusually cold weather.
The report shows that energy bills are the highest in the Northeast US. But families from California to Georgia to South Dakota are also feeling the pressure of rising costs over the past year.
Power hungry tech companies
Analysts say there are several reasons for rising residential energy costs.
For one, the price of natural gas, a key component of about half of electricity generation in the US, has increased over the past year. The natural gas industry is moving more and more production abroad, causing domestic prices to rise.
John Quigley, a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, said electricity generation “is being hammered by the ever-increasing cost of fuel”.
Recent shifts away from clean energy investments may also play a role. A report by climate advocacy group Climate Power cites the Trump administration’s cancellation of projects that would have produced the equivalent of electricity for 13 million homes.
The report found that the demise of clean energy projects has led to a 13% rise in electricity bills since Trump returned to the White House, as the US has increased its reliance on foreign oil.
Another key factor: energy demand from the artificial intelligence boom is putting pressure on the power grid.
Technology companies from Alphabet to Amazon are increasing their investments in AI infrastructure, and data centers require huge amounts of power.
Quigley said the continued and increasing power demand for data centers is driving up prices for everyone.
‘You can deal with people’s disappointment’
Treasury Secretary Scott Besant told ABC News in November that electricity prices were a “state problem”.
“There are things the federal government can control. Local electricity prices are not one of them,” he said.
But some analysts argue that if the federal government embraced clean energy, it would help lower prices.
At the state level, some lawmakers have proposed requiring large data centers to supply their own electricity, so that households do not have to bear the cost.
In Virginia, where data centers have proliferated, Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger has announced a plan to ensure that tech companies are “doing their fair share,” encouraging clean on-site and off-site generation and storage at data centers.
Virginia utility regulators recently authorized a separate rate tier for the largest electricity customers, like data centers, that would require them to pay a larger share to save other ratepayers.
“You can deal with people’s frustration with prices in the near term while also dealing with these long-term structural reforms,” said Alex Jacquez of Groundwork Collaborative.
But any relief for consumers will take time. Residential energy prices are likely to remain high in the coming months.
Last year, 30-year-old Ibrahim Awadalla installed solar panels on his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, in hopes of reducing his energy costs.
His plan worked to a great extent. Their electricity bill is lower than their neighbors, even taking into account the $180 they pay per month on their solar panel loan.
Yet, in October, Awadalla noticed that his utility company bills were getting more expensive – an increase of about 10% – even though he was out of town for most of the month.
A telecommunications developer has proposed building a data center nearby in East Charlotte. Awadalla is worried that if the project is approved, the cost of electricity will rise even higher.
“I don’t see things getting better any time soon,” he said.