Low-Cost Energy Policies Can Fuel Democrats Defeat of MAGA
Clean Energy is Key to Addressing Trump's Self-Inflicted Affordability Crisis
Donald Trump’s heedless war in Iran and his political crusade against clean energy have inflicted a devastating new affordability crisis on American consumers, directly causing the highest inflation levels in over three years and undermining kitchen table finances for tens of millions of families. New polls show even working class voters are turning against Trump as never before over energy high prices. Democrats now have a massive opportunity to make low-cost energy the centerpiece of their affordability agenda and regain consumer trust and voter confidence, but only if they learn from past energy policy mistakes and put consumer interests first.
Trump’s Iran “excursion” has spiked gasoline prices $1.20 a gallon and will cost the U.S. average family an additional $740 this year alone. And despite the latest agreement with Iran, leading analysts predict Middle East disruptions will result in high oil prices for years to come, driving long-term U.S. inflation, crippling consumers into the future and the undermining the ability of the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to keep job growth going. No wonder a record 63% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, with only 14% saying the economy is improving.
MAGA’s electricity policy has been just as costly for consumers. As part of a political vendetta against clean energy and climate protection, the Trump Administration has deliberately cancelled or delayed hundreds of viable wind, solar and other clean projects needed to limit consumer and business electricity costs even as the rampant growth of Trump-backed big tech AI data centers are driving up power prices across the country by as much as 75%.
Instead of struggling with high prices, America should be on the precipice of a remarkable low-cost energy renaissance which no other country in the world can match. The U.S. has a unique combination of plentiful oil and natural gas resources and new innovative energy technologies that can dramatically reduce costs now and even more in the near future for average families and businesses while growing powerful new economic sectors and creating millions of good paying jobs.
New technologies like already low cost EVs that will be far cheaper soon, super-fast EV charging, cheap solar, surging electricity storage and many others have reached the point where they are both low-cost and low-emitting. Democrats can emphasize the economic value of these new technologies without needing to lecture Americans about limiting emissions.
But the Trump White House and their allies on Capitol Hill are deliberately preventing this low-cost revolution from reaching American consumers. For example, Utah Senator Mike Lee is effectively stopping the Senate from enacting permitting reforms needed to build new powerlines to carry cheap wind and solar to consumers. Trump Republicans believe they can already site oil and natural gas infrastructure by stretching existing authorities, and so continue to pursue their culture war against clean energy despite overwhelming evidence that new energy is key to limiting electricity price increases.
At the same time, research shows rank and file Democrats support U.S. production of oil and especially natural gas as central to keeping domestic prices down while also aiding our beleaguered allies in Europe. So Democrats need new energy policies to boost their own continuing low ratings. Congressional Democrats must show a new willingness to support some additional natural gas infrastructure in exchange for reforms to allow interstate powerlines, so that they can finally gain a permitting reform deal on Capitol Hill to bring far more cheap clean energy to consumers.
The cheap energy revolution has only just begun, and America, not China, should be leading the way. Yet Trump administration cuts in clean energy incentives and science and R&D funding are crippling US energy innovation, allowing China to not just dominate energy tech today, but risking ceding next generation technologies like solid state batteries that would further cut the cost of electric vehicles while eliminating the need for lithium and many other rare Earth minerals which China now controls.
In recent years, this vision of low-cost energy innovation fueling growth has been obscured by political battles over U.S. climate policy featuring science denial and false “green scam” scare tactics and policies by Trump and his allies—but also exacerbated by far-left Democrats who have turned a blind eye to consumer cost issues that are most important right now to most voters. As President Obama said: “The bottom line is natural gas is creating jobs… [and] lowering many families’ heat and power bills. And it’s the transition fuel … [to] technology required for the even cleaner energy economy of the future.”
Democratic Governors are also taking on AI data centers over there outsized energy demand that is driving up prices for normal consumers. In addition to Democratic chief executives insisting that the tech industry pay it’s fair share and hold consumers harmless, they should insist that big tech commit to using low-methane natural gas, a key measure to both conserve the resource and reduce emissions.
But Democrats should aggressively advocate the building of all infrastructure needed to create a new low-cost energy economy, including some gas infrastructure, recognizing that soon clean energy will be far cheaper, and emissions will fall more quickly. A “Build New Energy and Consumers Win” campaign should animate Democrats in the upcoming midterms and help fuel a winning race for the White House in 2028.
“I love the inflation” Trump blustered recently as the new shocking energy price numbers emerged. But Americans hate it: surveys show consumer concerns about inflation have just hit an all-time record high. Indeed, most political analysts believe it was high inflation due to Covid funding that paved the way for Trump’s reelection in 2024.
But Trump’s whistling past the graveyard on high energy costs will only backfire with voters if Democrats forcefully prove they can bring lower cost energy to consumers, changing the balance of political power about which party can solve the energy affordability crisis.
Paul Bledsoe is an energy and climate policy consultant who served as a staff member in the U.S. House, the Senate Finance Committee, and the Clinton White House.