This Is What Blue State AGs Are Doing To Jack Up Your Energy Bill

When President Trump took office last year, he rightfully declared an energy emergency and ushered in orders to accelerate domestic production. The Biden administration had used the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to hamstring American energy companies with burdensome regulations disguised as “fighting climate change.”  These actions stifled new energy initiatives, contributing to a nationwide rise in electricity rates. Now, with its new Trump-appointed members, FERC has instituted major reforms to cut red tape and hasten energy dominance.

One such reform, voted 5-to-0 by the Commissioners, proposes to reform the “Blanket Program,” streamlining the approval process for infrastructure projects that improve existing systems. For example, if a company already received FERC approval for a natural gas storage facility and wants to build a second, it is common sense that most of the paper-pushing, box-checking bureaucracy was well established the first time. The Blanket Program expedites the process for “brownfield” project sites that are already in use.

But here come the blue states, hellbent on stopping anything Trump. Fifteen Democratic Attorneys General (AG), led by Washington’s AG Nick Brown and Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell, have petitioned FERC to keep permitting slow, tangled, and expensive, calling the new FERC reform a threat to “ratepayers.” That’s the pot calling the kettle black. The other state AGs who are joining this letter — California, New York, Maryland, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Vermont, and the want-to-be-state Washington, D.C. — have no credibility on this topic. FERC should recognize that they represent a who’s-who of the nation’s highest electricity prices. Just ask their own ratepayers how “protection” is working out for them.

Since 2021, electricity prices in Washington have risen 32.8%, and in neighboring Oregon, 37.6%. Massachusetts leads New England in price increases, up 38.7% over five years, with neighboring states Connecticut up 29.4% and Maine up a stunning 65.3%.  To lower energy costs, these states should be begging FERC to expedite the infrastructure they need to heat homes and generate electricity.    

D.C. residents have seen their electric bills climb 73.7% since 2020. California, home to some of the priciest power in the country, is up 59.1%. Maryland’s AG, Anthony Brown, wants to protect ratepayers from “unjustified” cost increases, even as his own state has seen electricity prices rise nearly 50%. Colorado is up 28.2%, and even Arizona (not exactly a coastal blue-state stronghold) is up 24.9%. Michigan and Minnesota round out the list, both up over 20%, both states that mandated 100% “clean energy” deadlines their grids can’t and won’t actually meet. Now their Attorneys General want to make sure the natural gas infrastructure that could steady those prices gets buried.

New York’s AG Letitia James, a person who has never missed an opportunity to use her office to attack President Trump, is defending red tape on gas pipelines while New Yorkers eat a 43.7% rate hike. New York State, home to one of the world’s largest natural gas deposits(though asinine green mandates forbid developing it), continues to push the green agenda. Somewhere in NY, Governor Kathy Hochul is nodding along, hoping the media continues to ignore her delay in implementing her celebrated energy-crushing climate initiatives until after her November election. The latest poll has the incumbent leading only by four points, answering the age-old question: when is a climate crisis not a climate crisis? When it hurts re-election.

This is the same script the climate fringe has run for years: block energy initiatives like new pipeline developments, mandate expensive wind and solar, then act shocked when the bill triples. Europe has been doing this for nearly 30 years, and they pay three to four times as much as Americans for electricity. One would think our elected leaders would learn a lesson here, but they have not.

One blue state whose Attorney General did not join this effort is New Mexico. During the same period, its electricity prices increased by only 11%. Home to part of the natural gas mega site, the Permian Basin, even its AG knows who butters the state’s bread.

One can rightfully ask whether these AGs even knew what they were signing, or whether “stop President Trump” is enough for them to act. Clearly partisanship trumps common sense, especially if it gets Trump; affordability be damned.

If these AGs spent half the energy (pun intended) they spent litigating it on demanding faster permitting, their states might not be leading the country in rate hikes. But that would require admitting their states’ respective energy policies have failed, risking the wrath of green donors who fund their campaigns. Sadly, politics wins out over policy, especially in an election year, and tens of millions of Americans living in these states will continue to suffer high electricity prices until their AGs stop being politicians and start being pragmatic. I won’t hold my breath.

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Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. He also runs a sheep and cattle farm in rural Virginia.  Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF