Energy Affordability Emerges as Top Election Issue for Democrats

Skyrocketing energy bills are shaping up to be a cornerstone of congressional Democrats' election-year message for why voters should return them to power in November.

The Trump administration is responsible for Americans' bigger electric bills, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said Thursday after a roundtable discussion on energy affordability with nine Senate Democrats, union, and local officials, and energy efficiency advocates. "That is what we communicate in the midterms. This is an open door; all you have to do is push on it."

The issue is gathering steam, as extreme cold stretches across the US and more Americans confront eye-popping energy bills.

The average US household is on track to spend $995 on heating this winter, an increase of $84 from last year, according to a January analysis from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. Electricity bills spiked 12.7% between January and October 2025, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Democrats argue these fluctuations are a direct result of the White House's rejection of clean energy sources and the resurrection of coal-fired plants, an increase in exporting liquefied natural gas exports leading to a smaller domestic supply, and a too-cozy relationship with the oil and gas industry.

"Right now, clean is cheap and cheap is clean. We need to keep it extremely simple as it relates to the affordability question," said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii.).

Republicans have blamed price spikes on former President Joe Biden's push for more renewable energy at the expense of traditional fossil fuels, and his administration's effort to impose more environmental regulations on the energy and transportation sectors. Other factors, including the proliferation of data centers demanding more energy from the country's already fragile grid, also have contributed to higher costs.

President Donald Trump has dismissed Democrats' affordability crisis messaging as a "hoax."

'Speed Matters'

Democrats are assessing their 2022 tax-and-climate law-which featured historic investments in clean energy that the Trump administration and Republicans have tried to dismantle-for lessons on how to do things differently on energy if they regain the majority.

Schatz said certain provisions weren't "deployed quickly enough" to have maximum impact. "I would like think about extremely simple, immediately executable things that we can do and fight for on the federal level," he said.

Heinrich said the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the "green bank" EPA grant program created by that law, was an example of something that took too long to set up and administer, making it vulnerable to reversal when Trump took office. "Speed matters," he said, adding that "incentives in the tax code are

fast."

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), who also spoke at the event, introduced legislation Thursday to restore some of the energy efficiency and clean energy tax credits repealed by the GOP 2025 tax-and-spending law.

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