RIPTON, Vt. – Amid a period when environmental regulations were being scaled back by the Trump administration, coinciding with an uptick in global temperatures and U.S. carbon emissions, veteran climate advocate Bill McKibben remains optimistic about a seemingly modest power source: sunlight.
For a quarter of a century, the sun has been providing McKibben with affordable energy. Recently, he upgraded his Vermont residence with a new set of solar panels, marking the fourth time he has made such an investment. Following the installation, McKibben expressed in an interview that President Donald Trump’s resistance to solar and other cost-effective renewable energies could backfire on the Republican Party in upcoming elections, especially as utility costs escalate.
While the Biden and Obama administrations previously supported solar, wind, and other renewable energies as crucial solutions to climate change, President Trump has pushed back, favoring traditional fossil fuels. Last month, the Trump administration halted five major offshore wind projects, though courts have since permitted three of these initiatives to proceed. Additionally, federal incentives for clean energy, including tax credits for home solar panel installations, lapsed at the end of December.
As electricity rates continue to climb across the nation, McKibben anticipates this will lead to political repercussions.
“I believe we are beginning to witness a significant political shift in the U.S. regarding this issue. My forecast is that electricity prices will be to the 2026 election what egg prices were to the 2024 election,” commented McKibben, who is also an author and the founder of several environmental and activist organizations. Analysts noted that routine inflation had a negative impact on Democrats in the most recent presidential election.
In response to these rising costs, the Trump administration, alongside a bipartisan group of governors, increased pressure on the operator of the country’s largest electric grid last Friday. They urged rapid action to enhance power supply in the mid-Atlantic region to prevent further increases in electricity bills.
“Ensuring the American people have reliable and affordable electricity is one of President Trump’s top priorities,” said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers.
Renewable energy prices drop around the world
Globally, the price of wind and solar power is plummeting to the point that they are cheaper than fossil fuels, the United Nations found. And China leads the world in renewable energy technology, with one of its electric car companies passing Tesla in annual sales.
“We can’t economically compete in a world where China gets a lot of cheap energy and we have to pay for really expensive energy,” McKibben told The Associated Press, just after he installed a new type of solar panels that can hang on balconies with little fuss.
When Trump took office in January 2025, the national average electricity cost was 15.94 cents per kilowatt-hour. By September it was up to 18.07 cents and then down slightly to 17.98 cents in October, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
That’s a 12.8% increase in 10 months. It rose more in 10 months than the previous two years. People in Maryland, New Jersey and Maine have seen electricity prices rise at a rate three times higher than the national average since October 2024.
At 900 kilowatt-hours per month, that means the average monthly electricity bill is about $18 more than in January 2025.
Democrats blame Trump for rising electric bills
This week, Democrats on Capitol Hill blamed rising electric bills on Trump and his dislike of renewable energy.
“From his first day in office, he’s made it his mission to limit American’s access to cheap energy, all in the name of increasing profits for his friends in the fossil fuel industry. As a result, energy bills across the country have skyrocketed,” Illinois Rep. Sean Casten said at a Wednesday news conference.
“Donald Trump is the first president to intentionally raise the price of something that we all need,” Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, also a Democrat, said Wednesday on the Senate floor. “Nobody should be enthused about paying more for electricity, and this national solar ban is making everybody pay more. Clean is cheap and cheap is clean.”
Solar panels on McKibben’s Vermont home
McKibben has been sending excess electricity from his solar panels to the Vermont grid for years. Now he’s sending more.
As his dog, Birke, stood watch, McKibben, who refers to his home nestled in the Green Mountains of Vermont as a “museum of solar technology” got his new panels up and running in about 10 minutes. This type of panel from the California-based firm Bright Saver is often referred to as plug-in solar. Though it’s not yet widely available in the U.S., McKibben pointed to the style’s popularity in Europe and Australia.
“Americans spend three or four times as much money as Australians or Europeans to put solar panels on the roof. We have an absurdly overcomplicated permitting system that’s unlike anything else on the rest of the planet,” McKibben said.
McKibben said Australians can obtain three hours of free electricity each day through a government program because the country has built so many solar panels.
“And I’m almost certain that that’s an argument that every single person in America would understand,” he said. “I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t say: ‘I’d like three free hours of electricity.’”
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Swinhart reported from Vermont. Borenstein reported from Washington. Matthew Daly contributed to this report from Washington.
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