Energy prices rise in defiance of Trump campaign promises

Energy & Environment Energy prices rise in defiance of Trump campaign promises Comments: by Rachel Frazin - 07/27/26 6:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Rachel Frazin - 07/27/26 6:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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President Trump ran on a pledge to bring down energy costs, but a year and a half into his second term, prices of both gasoline and electricity are rising.

While he was on the campaign trail, Trump promised to cut power prices by 50 percent.

“Under my leadership, the United States will commit to the ambitious goal of slashing energy and electricity prices by half, at least,” he said at a rally.

“We intend to slash prices by half within 12 months, at a maximum 18 months,” he added.

However, average household electricity prices for the first five months of 2026 were about 12 percent higher than the same period in 2024, significantly outpacing inflation.

While gasoline fluctuated during the Biden administration, prices are now about 60 cents higher than they were at this time in 2024, averaging $4.11 per gallon on Friday, according to AAA.

Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, said high energy prices “push up” the cost of living for ordinary Americans.

“They have higher costs of gasoline to run their car. Food costs will increase on the margin because trucks need to deliver groceries. If you use heating oil to heat your home, the cost will be higher,” Wolfe said.

He estimated that if oil remained at $100 per barrel for a year, it could cost families about $800 more a year on gasoline alone.

The high gas prices are a result of the U.S.-Iran war in the Middle East. Turmoil in the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping lane, and more recently the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait as well, have sent prices soaring.

“On heating oil and gasoline, it’s a direct result of the war. It’s pushing up prices and creating this instability in the market,” Wolfe said.

Asked about the prices, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers accused Iran of breaking a ceasefire with the U.S.

Rogers said that as the U.S. takes down Iran’s ability to attack commercial ships and disrupt trade through the state of Hormuz, “oil and gas prices will plummet back to pre-conflict levels.”

“President Trump remains committed to unleashing American energy dominance, cutting costs, and putting more money back in the pockets of hardworking American families,” she said.

Meanwhile, the electricity price picture is more complicated.

Thomas Rowlands-Rees, head of Global Power Markets Analysis at BloombergNEF, said that prices are going up because “we’re getting to a point where the bill is coming” for grid upgrades, and that it’s not necessarily the fault of any particular administration.

“The government doesn’t have access to that many ‘sticks’ that it can apply to the utility industry, because so much of the policy power there is at the state level,” he said, adding that federal electricity policy has impact on a “timescale of years and decades.”

Rowlands-Rees said that he doesn’t think that any administration would have been able to cut the price in half in 18 months.

“I don’t think it was something that the government could have achieved, even if they made all the right policy choices, because those policy choices wouldn’t have an impact on such a short timescale,” he said.

He added that if anything, the Trump administration’s policies may actually raise prices in the long-term, including its desire to expand exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which could increase demand for the fuel.

“The government has been very favorable to encourage expansion of energy extraction in the U.S., which would be a downward pressure, but on the other hand, they’ve also been very bullish on exports of LNG,” he said. “Our current analysis suggests that the U.S.’s ability to export is going to grow faster than the U.S.’s ability to expand supply, so that means there’s going to be potentially in the next few years upward pressure on natural gas prices — and we’re talking about maybe two or three years from now.”

Wolfe, meanwhile, also dinged the administration for the hurdles it has set up for renewable energy.

“It’s not the president’s fault that electricity prices are rising faster than inflation. They’ve been rising faster than inflation for several years,” he said, but he added that “clean energy provides stable pricing.”

The high energy prices could spell trouble for Republicans in the midterm elections.

“It’s a problem for any incumbent,” said GOP strategist Keith Naughton.

“Anything that’s raising prices is going to be a challenge for whoever’s in office,” added Naughton, who also contributes opinion pieces to The Hill.