Affordability is the key buzzword ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, and no cost-of-living concern has risen to the top of the political agenda like rising electricity prices. The Trump administration and Congress are trying to reform the electrical grid to increase the supply of power to meet soaring demand. Yet the different parties cannot agree on what’s causing the problem, the sources of energy to pursue, or how to overhaul the permitting process to allow more construction. This Washington Examiner series will look at the policy and politics of the grid. The first entry covered the role of renewable energy and the retirement of fossil fuel plants. This second story looks at how transmission lines drive affordability.

Electricity prices are soaring across the country, driven not only by supply constraints but also by increased pressure on the United States’s electric grid from aging infrastructure struggling to deliver that power.