Americans hit with soaring electricity bills as price hikes outpace inflation nationwide

Americans are facing rising electricity costs around the country as winter weather and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers increase demands on the electric grid.

Electricity prices have risen faster than the pace of inflation in the last year. January consumer price index (CPI) data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed electricity costs were up 6.3% from a year ago, while CPI was up 2.4% in that period.

Data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that, as of December, electricity prices rose nationally from 12.82 cents per kilowatt-hour to 13.72 cents, an increase of 7.1%. The data covers electricity use across all sectors of the economy, including residential, commercial, industrial and transportation.

Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group and a FOX Business contributor, said that electricity prices are rising in part because of a regulatory environment that favored renewable energy sources like solar and wind over more reliable sources like natural gas, coal or nuclear.

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“They forced the grid away from reliable and cheap baseload power and made it nearly impossible to upgrade power plants, build new pipelines and, in some cases, mandated new builds be powered with electricity instead of natural gas,” Flynn told FOX Business.

While some states have seen modest increases or even declines in electricity costs in the last year, ratepayers in a number of states have seen double-digit percentage increases in the electric bills that can put a significant dent in household budgets.

The District of Columbia saw the biggest spike when compared with the 50 states, with its electricity prices rising 26.29%.

Here’s a look at the 10 states that saw the largest increases in overall electricity costs from a year ago and those that experienced the smallest increases or declines, according to EIA data.

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