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Prior to the Biden-Harris administration, electricity prices had been flat for a decade at around 13 cents per kilowatt-hour. They’re now at 18 cents per kWh—an increase of nearly 30% since 2020.

U.S. consumers are paying more for everything, especially electricity, as price increases ripple through the economy. Although food and housing inflation receive a lot of attention, a hidden cost of both home ownership and renting is rising electricity costs.

This is despite the fact that natural gas powers half of the U.S. grid and prices for it hit record lows this year.

President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory means a change in energy policy with positive effects on electricity prices and power generation. This shift could pivot the U.S. toward more reliable sources for power generation such as natural gas and coal, reducing our reliance on expensive, weather-dependent wind and solar.

“Green energy” advocates argue that wind and solar are both cheaper and better for the environment, but neither claim holds up to scrutiny.

As more states force wind and solar on their grids, costs passed along to consumers continue to rise, along with global carbon dioxide emissions—the very thing green energy is supposed to curb.

Rising electricity prices and increasing shares of wind and solar in the grid are closely linked. Integrating these intermittent sources is more complex and costly than proponents anticipated.

Wind and solar are expensive because they’re not only intermittent but weather-dependent. Often, peak output doesn’t align with peak demand. Utility-scale battery storage is prohibitively expensive and can’t maintain reliable power for major cities.

Trump’s policy direction could ease these cost pressures by reducing green mandates and supporting stable energy solutions such as increasing power generation with natural gas and stopping the aggressive decommissioning of coal‘s cheap, reliable baseload power generation.

Trump’s stance on CO2 emissions also differs from that of the Biden-Harris administration. His “Drill, baby, drill” agenda is about harnessing U.S. energy to lower prices for businesses and consumers. It prioritizes affordable domestic energy such as shale gas and coal over reliance on costly, imported renewables.

Under Trump’s leadership in a second term, we should see a shift away from aggressive decarbonization that forces wind and solar power into the grid, giving states more flexibility to focus on reliable, cost-effective energy sources.

China is an often-overlooked aspect of green energy. China remains the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, producing cheap solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries using coal, forced labor, and lax environmental standards.

China accounts for a third of global carbon dioxide emissions and boasts more coal-fired capacity to generate power than the entire U.S. grid. Ironically, the West’s rush to green energy inadvertently enables higher CO2 emissions as well as human rights abuses.

The second Trump administration may address U.S. reliance on China for wind and solar technologies, emphasizing domestic energy solutions instead. If America wants truly “green” and ethical energy, it must prioritize affordable, reliable, and responsibly produced U.S. natural gas and coal while fostering energy innovation at home.

American natural gas and baseload coal are critical to reliability and affordability. Rapidly removing coal power reduces grid reliability, raises costs, and indirectly increases global CO2 emissions by shifting U.S. manufacturing to countries such as China.

The real costs of renewable energy often go unexamined. The infrastructure needed to integrate wind and solar into the grid is substantial, requiring costly investments in transmission and storage. 

The mining of metals and minerals for “green” energy is largely done in Africa and Latin America with heavy, diesel-powered equipment. Processing and refining are concentrated in China, where environmental and labor standards are far lower than in the U.S. 

If green technology isn’t lowering global CO2 emissions and is increasing electricity costs, what should the U.S. do?

After taking over Jan. 20, the new Trump administration can lean into natural gas and pause the decommissioning of coal-fired power generation to support grid reliability and reduce energy costs. This would align with an America-first energy strategy that emphasizes affordable, responsible energy resources like U.S. shale gas and coal.

America is the largest oil and gas producer in the world. American energy can power the nation responsibly and affordably. The solution lies not in Chinese-made solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries but in leveraging our vast energy resources.

U.S. shale gas can fuel the nation and the world.

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