Welch, Markey, Whitehouse, Shaheen, King, and Blumenthal Slam Trump Admin Policies for Rising Energy Costs

Aug 8, 2025
BURLINGTON, VT–U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.)this week joined NortheasternU.S.Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.),Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.),Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.),Angus King (I-Maine), andRichard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)in demanding information from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin about how the Trump Administration has increased energy costs for families. In their letter, the Senators slammed Trump Administration policies that have raised electricity bills for Americans and called on the Administration to take immediate action that will actually support energy affordability in New England and across the country.
The letter follows EPA Administrator Zeldin’s recentopinion piece inThe Boston Globepushing for disastrous ‘solutions’ like long-term natural gas development to address rising energy prices under the Trump Administration. The op-ed comes days after EPA Administrator Zeldin moved to cancel Solar for All grants, which help create and expand low-income solar programs. At the same time, Republicans’ so-called‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Actwill increase energy costs by terminating federal clean energy programs and cutting investments that bolster American-made energy—hiking electricity costs in Vermont by$70 per yearon average starting next year.
“On Tuesday, you wrote an opinion piece in the Boston Globe about your thoughts on New England’s energy grid, attempting to diagnose the issue of rising energy prices in the region. Costs are too high and are only getting higher, but unfortunately, your op-ed failed to mention the immediate source of these rising prices: the actions of your Administration and Republicans in Congress. While energy demand surges, your policies are strangling America’s cheapest and quickest-to-deploy sources of energy—solar and wind—by hiking costs, creating insurmountable permitting hurdles, and injecting uncertainty into the market,”wrote the Senators.
“At the same time, the Trump Administration is attempting to kill programs meant to lower energy bills. The end result is fewer affordable megawatts on the grid, higher electricity costs, and less support for struggling American families,”the Senators continued. “If you want to solve the problem of energy costs in New England, we would direct you and your colleagues to immediately address these straightforward sources of uncertainty and increased costs created by the Trump Administration.”
The Senators concluded:“With ongoing misinformation and misdirection on energy costs in the press, it is important that we set the record straight on why families are finding it harder than ever to keep the lights on, stay cool in the summer, and stay warm in the winter. We urge you to stop making the energy cost crisis worse, end your attack on our energy grid, and instead support the solutions that could lower costs today–build cheap, deployable power, fund programs to help families afford energy bills, cut demand with energy efficiency, and end unfettered exports.”
After a decade of nearly flat growth, energy demand isrisingat rates not seen in decades, and prices are growing with it—outpacing inflation. Household electricity prices have alreadyincreasedby more than 6% since the start of the Trump Administration. Demand isprojectedto rise even faster over the next few years, especially as data centers are expected to require as much electricity as about 100 million U.S. homes by the end of the decade. As of April 2025, $1.5 billion in electric rate increases were beingpassedon to households to cover surging demand, with over $18 billion more in increases requested from utilities.
Read and downloadthe full text of the Senators’ letter to EPA Administrator Zeldin.
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