LONDONDERRY TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania — Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that if electricity prices fail to come down during President Donald Trump’s second presidency, it will be this administration’s fault.
During an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner at the former Three Mile Island Nuclear facility in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, Wright encouraged voters to hold the administration accountable on its vow to slash electricity prices in half, a notable expression of confidence, given the rapid price hikes of recent months.
When asked who should be held responsible if electricity prices are continuing to rise in three years, Wright said, “us, absolutely!”
“They should kick me out, fire me!” Wright continued, adding that if prices fail to come down, he wouldn’t be delivering on the president’s agenda.
Since Trump took office, electricity prices have soared across the country, rising by an average of roughly 13%, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.
Trump administration officials, including Wright, have broadly blamed these price hikes on policies imposed under former President Joe Biden to accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels and deployment of renewable energy alternatives, including wind and solar.
“The single biggest cause has been these renewable portfolio standards…the forcing of wind and solar onto electricity grids because they only produce electricity some of the time,” Wright said.
Wright said that Democrat-led states with prioritized renewable projects, such as California, New York, and Massachusetts, have seen substantial increases in electricity prices.
“If you look at states that have not forced wind and solar onto the grid, they haven’t had a meaningful rise in electricity prices,” he said.
Clean energy groups, such as American Clean Power, have pushed back against the narrative that renewables are to blame for electricity prices, arguing that the deployment of projects that can be quickly added to the grid can lower bills.
ACP reported this fall, using EIA data, that the top 10 states with the largest share of renewables in their energy makeup have also seen significantly smaller electricity price hikes over the last year, when compared with the national average.
Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to slash the cost of energy and electricity prices for voters, even vowing to cut prices by half within 12 to 18 months.
There have been few signs, however, that the administration will be able to hit that goal.
The most recent Consumer Price Index, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in October, found that electricity prices rose by 5.1% for the year ending in September, nearly double the rate of inflation.
TRUMP COMING UP SHORT ON PROMISE TO CUT ELECTRICITY COSTS AS PRICES KEEP CLIMBING
Still, Wright projected confidence that prices will come down soon, with some districts seeing slight relief as soon as the midterm elections.
“The electricity grid is like a battleship. You know, it started under President Obama and Vice President Biden that really started this momentum of forcing electricity grids to do politicians’ bidding and not the bidding of the rate payers,” he said. “So it takes some time to turn that, but in the Trump administration, you will see a downward trajectory on electricity prices.”
