More than eight in ten voters report paying higher energy costs in recent years, and large majorities say they are very concerned about rising utility bills. Post-election surveys in several 2025 state races show that utility costs ranked among voters’ top concerns, second only to grocery prices. At the same time, the Trump administration’s unfulfilled promises to slash energy prices have reinforced a broader sense that the system is rigged against them.

Against this backdrop, voters are thinking about energy policy through a practical lens—focused on which approaches are most likely to lower bills, keep the lights on, and prevent costs from spiraling further.

How Voters Think About Energy

When voters think about energy policy, affordability and reliability come first. Clean energy aligns with these priorities.

Roughly two-thirds of Americans support a transition to clean energy, majorities prefer an energy mix that includes renewables to meet electricity needs, and more than nine in ten say clean energy is important to the country’s future energy supply.

However, clean energy resonates most strongly when connected to lower bills, price stability, enhancing grid reliability, and local economic benefits. Message testing shows voters respond positively to arguments about expanding energy supply when the focus is on delivering more affordable, reliable power rather than restricting energy options.

Polling also shows that more than two-thirds of likely voters recognize the electric grid is aging and needs modernization, and roughly 65% support building more transmission lines to connect clean energy and strengthen grid reliability. Voters increasingly understand that modernizing the grid with upgraded lines, smarter technology, and expanded regional transmission can help utilities access cheaper electricity, move power more efficiently, and avoid costly emergency fixes that ultimately raise household energy bills.

What Solutions Resonate with Voters

Voters respond most strongly to solutions framed around fairness, accountability, and practical steps to lower household energy costs. Findings from the Climate Power–commissioned survey show especially strong resonance for:

• Holding monopoly utilities and fossil fuel companies responsible for rising electricity costs, particularly when messages highlight that they delay cheaper clean energy projects to protect profits.
• Expanding access to low-cost wind and solar energy, which voters recognize as the fastest and least expensive way to bring new electricity online and reduce bills.
• Reducing reliance on expensive gas-fired power generation, which voters understand as slower and more costly than clean energy alternatives.
• Explaining rising electricity prices as the result of deliberate actions by utilities, oil and gas executives, and allied politicians, rather than unavoidable market forces.

In particular, voters strongly agree that adding more wind and solar power helps keep electricity rates lower, and that utility and fossil fuel executives actively work to make clean energy projects harder to build because they profit more from capital-intensive gas power plants. Messages centered on utility profit motives and clean energy being cheaper and faster to build than gas are among the most convincing explanations for rising electricity prices, especially with swing voters.

What This Means Politically

Analysis of 2025 state election results shows that rising utility costs were a dominant voter concern, and candidates who made affordability and energy cost growth central to their campaigns succeeded in key races. These results suggest that voters reward leaders who acknowledge rising bills and offer clear, credible plans to lower costs.

At the same time, the data points to a growing political risk: leaders who oppose expanding cheap, clean energy are increasingly seen as defending corporate profits at the expense of households. For voters, energy policy is becoming a proxy for broader questions of fairness, accountability, and whose side elected officials are on.

That’s because voters do not see rising electricity bills as random or unavoidable. Many assign blame to monopoly utility companies, oil and gas CEOs, and the politicians who side with them, rather than market forces alone. A Climate Power–commissioned poll shows broad concern that corporate profit motives are driving higher energy costs, and that utility greed and deliberate efforts to block cheaper clean energy from coming online are to blame.

This frustration is increasingly tied to a familiar political playbook: protect corporate donors, attack clean energy, and let utilities pass the costs on to families. Trump and his allies have embraced this approach—sabotaging the cheapest sources of new power while advancing policies that favor fossil fuel executives and monopoly utilities. And now, voters are connecting their rising bills to energy companies’ profits.

The Bottom Line

As more voters start to make that connection, the implication is clear for decision-makers: leaders who champion cheap, clean energy and hold powerful interests accountable are seen as standing up for families, while those who block more affordable energy solutions risk being blamed for rising household costs.

In other words, voters believe high energy prices are a choice.

For more information or to speak with a policy expert, please contact Evergreen Action Midwest Press Secretary at emily@evergreenaction.com.

Find this memo online here.

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