Households Face Thousands in Energy Costs Due to Federal Policy Changes

A nonpartisan think tank has released a modeling analysis that found households in the contiguous United States will pay thousands of dollars more for energy through 2040 due to federal policy changes.

The Energy Innovation analysis found that households will pay an average of $6,500 more for energy cumulatively through 2040. In five states, households will pay roughly $9,000 more: Oregon, Mississippi, South Dakota, Virginia, and Wyoming.

The think tank attributed the increased costs to the administration's cancellation of new clean energy projects, leading to higher demand for natural gas and gasoline. The analysis also projected 37,000 additional premature deaths from air pollution, $72 billion in additional healthcare costs, and more than 9 billion tons of additional carbon pollution due to environmental rollbacks.

The Energy Innovation analysis did not include Alaska or Hawaii because key federal data is not available for those two states. The think tank's senior director for modeling and analysis said that across almost every state, the outlook is worse due to the combined set of policies.