The cost-of-living crisis is proving to be the biggest thorn in the side of Donald Trump during his second term, and according to a new report from NOTUS, his energy policies will make matters even more "toxic" for him and the GOP if he does not "reverse course."
Experts speaking with NOTUS prior to Trump's second inauguration predicted that skyrocketing energy prices would become a major political problem for the next administration, and as of this week, those same experts said "their predictions have already come to pass." In some parts of the US, household energy bills jumped by as much as 25 percent over the past three years, and the situation will only worsen as the rest of Trump's term plays out, with AI data centers consuming more and more power.
Trump's handling of the economy and his inability to bring down consumer prices have seen his approval with voters tank over the course of the year. Democrats running campaigns centered on affordability also saw major gains in off-year elections, leading many observers to predict major losses for the GOP in the 2026 midterms. Increased power bills could become a focal point for the cost-of-living conversation, and as NOTUS highlighted, Trump's energy policies are poised to make things worse.
Experts who spoke to the outlet agreed that any and all methods of energy generation will be needed in the coming years to manage consumer costs. Trump, however, has gotten increasingly aggressive in his crusade against renewable energy projects, moving to end many of them outright instead of simply pulling subsidies for them.
“Since a year ago, I think every single member of Congress and interest group has accepted the reality that load growth is high and that we’re going to have challenges meeting it reliably and affordably,” Rob Gramlich, the president of the Washington consulting firm Grid Strategies, told NOTUS: “Most people say we’re going to need a lot of generation of all types. The problem is, the president has not acknowledged that."
“The rhetoric went from ‘renewables shouldn’t be subsidized’ to outright hostility towards certain energy types," Neil Chatterjee, a Republican and a former commissioner at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said. "That caught me off guard a little bit, and that was frustrating."
While pushing an initiative to further integrate AI into the government, Trump's Energy Secretary Chris Wright claimed that the effort would "ultimately... push downward pressure on the prices of electricity," despite the typical effects increased AI usage has on energy costs. NOTUS pointed out that he offered no specifics for how his claims would bear out.
Jackson Morris, director of state power sector policy for the Natural Resources Defense Council, suggested to NOTUS that Wright's claims were a sign that the administration sees where the energy crisis is heading and how "toxic" it might get for them.
“If you read the tea leaves, Chris Wright, he’s very ideological about a lot of things, so it’s interesting to see within the administration, the people like him tasked with implementing AI dominance," Morris said. "They are seeing the writing on the wall. They’re like, if everybody’s bill doubles, we’re not going to be able to build out data centers because politics will be so toxic.”