Democrats hope to capitalize on voter fury over skyrocketing electric bills in the midterm elections. But blue-state politicians might want to look in the mirror before blaming federal subsidy cuts or data centers for the pain their own policies created.
A new interactive index from Always On Energy Research and the Institute for Energy Research reveals the steepest energy cost increases sit squarely in the bluest states across all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Eighty-six percent of states above the national average in the continental U.S. are reliably blue — voting for the Democratic presidential nominee in both 2020 and 2024. Meanwhile, 90% of the 10 states with the lowest electricity prices are reliably red.
The effect is clearest among the 13 original colonies that declared independence in 1776.
Blue states force aggressive renewable mandates that drive up consumer bills while shifting costs onto neighbors without rooftop solar panels.
Blue states layer aggressive renewable portfolio standards with clean energy mandates requiring electricity from intermittent wind and solar. They add full retail-rate net metering, crediting rooftop-solar owners more than their generation is worth and shifting fixed costs onto neighbors without panels. Their regulators let investor-owned utilities adopt net-zero pledges and retire coal and gas plants ratepayers must pay to replace.
Rhode Island ranks as the 3rd-most expensive state in the U.S. in 2025, posting an average rate of 25.86 cents per kilowatt hour. The state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard stampedes toward 100% renewables by 2033 — the fastest of any state.
In the 2026 legislative session, lawmakers rejected Gov. Dan McKee’s proposal to push the 100% deadline back to 2050. His office argued the faster timeline would triple compliance costs by 2031.
Gov. Kathy Hochul in New York had more success pushing back overambitious climate goals after a finding showed cutting emissions 40% by 2030 would impose costs exceeding $4,000 annually on upstate households and at least $2,300 in annual costs for New York City residents. Budget negotiations replaced the binding 2030 obligation with a 2040 target of 60% reductions.
Overarching most of New England and the Mid-Atlantic is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative — a cap-and-trade program adding compliance costs to coal, oil, and natural gas generators that spill into customer bills.
RGGI prices cleared at $35 per ton of CO2 in June 2026 — the highest ever — spurred in part by Virginia’s reentry to RGGI. Almost every RGGI member channels carbon-tax proceeds into green energy slush funds. New Hampshire stands alone, rebating 93% back to ratepayers in 2023.
These policies discourage investment in new natural gas pipelines, leading to inadequate supply that unnecessarily increases fuel costs and wholesale power prices.
New York has proven actively hostile to new pipelines, repeatedly denying water permits to the proposed Constitution Pipeline and Northeast Supply Enhancement projects. The latter only broke ground in April thanks to sustained pressure from the Trump administration — but Hochul skipped the groundbreaking ceremony.
Massachusetts has killed multiple major pipeline expansions.
“Red states let their grids run on what works. Blue states ask their residents to make sacrifices.”
Contrast with the original 13 colonies whose rates fell below the national average in 2025: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
Georgia has no renewable portfolio standard, no net-metering mandates, no carbon pricing schemes, and has adopted reasonable data center consumer protections. North Carolina does have a 100% carbon-neutral mandate, but its interim 2030 goal was repealed in 2025 after recognizing the costs. South Carolina’s non-binding standard expired in 2021, and the state is phasing out full retail-rate net metering.
Now that affordability has become the buzzword, Democratic politicians pin the blame for high electricity prices on anyone but themselves — despite knowing higher prices were the point.
In floor debates about New York’s climate law in 2019, then-state senator Todd Kaminsky acknowledged it would “ask people to make sacrifices.”
Red states let their grids run on what works. Blue states ask their residents to make sacrifices because of their electricity policy choices.
