To: Interested Parties
From: Evergreen Action Communications Director Seth Nelson
Date: October 8, 2025
Re: Trump’s Energy Price Hike: An Oil-Soaked Crusade of Political Retribution
The day after Donald Trump and Republicans chose to shut down the government, the White House gleefully unveiled yet another act of clean energy sabotage aimed at states that didn’t vote for him. It was a perfect snapshot of Trump’s governing ethos: political retribution at all costs—even as Americans’ utility bills skyrocket.
Since he took office, household electric bills have jumped 10%, rising more than twice as fast as the cost of living. A major driver is Trump’s push to expand liquefied “natural” gas exports, which has sent gas prices soaring more than 50% over the same period. For Trump, punishing his opponents always comes first, no matter the price working families pay.
That ethos has defined every move he makes. In just one two-week span from late August to early September, Trump slapped tariffs on certain wind turbine materials and opened a sham “national security” probe to pave the way for even more. He halted construction on a nearly-completed offshore wind farm and moved to revoke permits for two more. He canceled hundreds of millions in port funding critical to offshore wind development and imposed new directives to stifle renewable projects on federal lands. The spree culminated in a bizarre cabinet meeting where Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. bragged that half a dozen agencies—including his own—were “working together” to obstruct offshore wind.
When we first published Bill, Baby, Bill: Trump’s Energy Price Hikes Are Draining Americans’ Wallets just over two months into Trump’s presidency, we expected to update it a couple of times this year. Less than seven months later, we’re already on the fifth edition—a testament to the staggering and costly pace at which Trump is dismantling clean energy.
Beyond the long-term climate damage that will reverberate across generations, Americans are already paying the price. Trump’s political retribution tour doubles as a payout to the Big Oil donors who bankrolled his campaign—propping up dirty, expensive fossil fuels, driving up utility bills, and making life even less affordable for working people just to protect industry profits.
What follows is a breakdown of Trump’s latest actions—and how each is jacking up utility bills and the cost of living:
Trump’s Energy Price Hike: An Updated Timeline
October 2: Amid government shutdown, White House moves to claw back billions from blue states meant to deliver cheaper clean power
Action: As the government shutdown entered its second day, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, “he of Project 2025 fame,” announced the administration would claw back billions in clean energy funds—nearly all from states that did not support Trump in the 2024 election. The funds had already been obligated to build wind, solar, and transmission projects to cut energy prices and strengthen the grid. Instead, the administration is weaponizing the budget process to punish political opponents.
Impact: Stripping away this funding won’t just hurt blue states—it will raise costs and weaken grid reliability across the country. As one clean energy advocate put it, “energy does not abide by state boundaries [...] Anytime you destroy a project in one part of the country, it’s going to affect another part of the country.” By clawing back these investments, Trump is driving up utility bills, undermining reliability, and costing jobs—all to settle political scores. Families everywhere, not just in the states he targets, will be forced to pay the price.
September 29: Trump administration announces all-of-government bailout for billionaire coal barons
Action: The Trump administration unveiled an all-of-government bailout to prop up the dying coal industry—the dirtiest and most expensive power source on the grid. The plan funnels more than $600 million into keeping dying, uneconomic plants alive, opens millions of acres of federal land for new coal mining, and guts dozens of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safeguards designed to curb climate and water pollution from coal and other fossil fuel plants.
Impact: By shoveling taxpayer dollars to polluters and tearing down protections for clean air and water, Trump is leaving American families with toxic air and higher bills—all so coal barons can wring out just a few more years of profit. Chris Wright, fossil fuel enthusiast and Secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE), has already forced one coal plant to run well past its retirement, sticking ratepayers with millions in unnecessary costs. Now, the administration is preparing a broader policy to, in Wright’s words, “stop the closure of coal plants”—more than 100 of which are set to retire before the end of Trump’s term. His Big Coal Bailout will lock the country into even more expensive, outdated power, with working families left holding the bill.
September 22: Trump administration directs Army Corps of Engineers to consider “energy generation per acre” and “aesthetics” in permitting process
Action: Joining the administration’s crusade against wind and solar, Trump’s top political appointee overseeing the Army Corps of Engineers issued a directive requiring the agency to weigh a project’s “annual potential energy generation per acre” and whether it would “denigrate the aesthetics of America’s natural landscape” when issuing permits under the Clean Air Act.
Impact: The standard is a transparent attempt to block permits for wind and solar—projects Trump has derided as “ugly” and attacked for “tak[ing] up thousands of acres”—in favor of fossil fuels. The administration claims this is about reducing environmental impact and conserving land, but ignoring the climate crisis—from wildlife loss to rising seas and wildfires—will cause far greater damage to America’s natural landscape. Instead of boosting cheaper clean energy, Trump is working overtime to protect fossil fuels and block renewables—an approach that will only drive up utility bills for working families.
September 12: Trump’s anti-immigrant crusade derails Hyundai’s EV battery plant opening
Action: As part of Trump’s escalating campaign against immigrants, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided a Hyundai electric vehicle (EV) plant under construction in Georgia. ICE agents detained 475 workers, most of them Korean nationals holding valid work visas. With much of its specialized workforce suddenly gone, Hyundai is now facing months-long construction delays.
Impact: As Bloomberg put it, “the economic ramifications are potentially just beginning.” Despite Korean companies pledging billions in U.S. manufacturing—including $26 billion from Hyundai alone—and the White House touting those investments, Trump’s raid has stalled production, disrupted the domestic supply chain, and now risks driving up EV manufacturing costs. Those costs could eventually hit consumers trying to make the cost-saving switch to EVs. Beyond this one project, the raid has “totally freaked out” businesses, fueling fears that Trump will target other industries that rely on specialized temporary foreign labor. Immigration officials boasted that it was the “largest single-site enforcement operation” in history—complete with images of hundreds of shackled Korean workers. The chilling message to global investors is clear: under Trump, the United States is closed for business.
September 3: Trump enlists agencies with no energy mandate to attack offshore wind
Action: The New York Times reported that the White House has directed at least six federal agencies to draft plans to “thwart the country’s offshore wind industry” as part of Trump’s escalating war on wind energy. Even agencies with unrelated missions are being drawn in. At HHS, officials are legitimizing baseless conspiracy theories linking wind turbines to health problems. And the Department of Defense is following up on vague “national security” concerns first raised when Trump’s Department of the Interior abruptly halted the nearly completed Revolution Wind project.
Impact: Just as Trump has pushed his bizarre bird-related conspiracy theories, the administration is now leaning on fringe pseudo-science and manufactured security concerns to stall clean energy. Kennedy is investigating wind turbine health myths he himself has spread, while Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has floated the fantasy of a “swarm drone attack through a wind farm.” The strategy is obvious: throw out as many wild claims as possible and see what sticks. By mobilizing a cross-government effort to obstruct offshore wind, Trump is working to block or delay projects that would add desperately needed, affordable clean power to the grid. The result will be even steeper bills for consumers as energy demand continues to skyrocket.
September 2: Trump signals intent to vacate approvals for Massachusetts and Maryland offshore wind projects
Action: According to recent legal filings, the Trump administration is moving to reconsider approval of major offshore wind projects off the coasts of Massachusetts and Maryland—despite both projects already securing the necessary permits to advance.
Impact: The message is unmistakable: no project is safe from being dragged back into endless review, no matter how far along it is. The result is uncertainty for investors and developers, delays for communities counting on clean energy jobs, and higher costs for families. As Maryland Gov. Wes Moore warned, Trump’s actions would “directly lead to utility-rate hikes” by blocking the clean power supply needed to lower bills and strengthen the grid.
September 2: Federal court prolongs EPA’s freeze of congressionally obligated Green Bank funding
Action: As we’ve detailed in earlier editions of this memo, Trump’s EPA has waged a baseless disinformation campaign against the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF)—freezing and attempting to claw back already obligated funds, smearing grantees, and repeating thoroughly discredited claims of fraud and abuse. Now, two Trump-appointed judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia lifted an injunction that had barred the EPA from seizing funds already in private bank accounts for grantees. Their ruling parroted the same unfounded talking points pushed by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin—including claims that the agency had previously been forced to admit in court it had no evidence to support.
Impact: GGRF grantees have pledged to continue the legal fight, but the ruling represents a major setback for a program designed to cut energy costs and deliver investments to the communities that need them most. Before Zeldin’s witch hunt, GGRF dollars were driving economic growth and lowering household energy bills. If the EPA succeeds in clawing back these congressionally obligated funds, the nonpartisan analysts at Energy Innovation estimate American consumers will pay an additional $52 billion in energy costs.
August 29: Trump’s Department of Transportation cancels hundreds of millions for offshore wind projects
Action: In the latest escalation of Trump’s campaign to crush the wind industry, the Department of Transportation (DOT) announced it would cancel or withdraw $679 million in federal funding for 12 projects supporting offshore wind development. The cuts include funding for building or upgrading critical port infrastructure in California, New York, Virginia, and New Jersey—projects intended to serve as staging hubs for assembling and deploying offshore wind turbines. These facilities are essential for building the clean energy infrastructure that could power millions of homes and attract billions in private investment.
Impact: As one former offshore wind executive put it, “the industry is in dire straits.” By stripping away this funding, Trump is wielding a sledgehammer against the supply chain necessary to bring affordable offshore wind power online. Without these staging hubs, projects will face delays, scale-backs, or cancellations—jeopardizing billions in investment and hundreds of jobs. More importantly, it slows the addition of affordable clean power to the grid, leaving families to shoulder higher utility bills as demand climbs and the country remains reliant on dirty, aging, and costly fossil fuel plants.
August 28: Trump extends order forcing aging Pennsylvania fossil fuel plant to stay open
Action: The Trump administration reissued an emergency stay-open order for Constellation Energy’s Eddystone Generating Station outside Philadelphia, forcing the aging oil- and gas-fired plant to remain online at least six months past its scheduled retirement.
Impact: Despite the grid operator approving its closure after finding no reliability concerns with closing the costly plant, the DOE overrode that decision, citing “emergency” conditions along with a controversial study about blackout risks that energy experts have widely panned as flawed. Customers across the entire region will shoulder nearly $70 million more annually to cover expenses for keeping the plant running—costs that wouldn’t otherwise exist and that will provide no benefit to ratepayers. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania families living near Eddystone—already in one of the most polluted corridors in the state—are stuck with higher bills and more health risks. If Trump’s order were really about an energy emergency and reliability concerns, he wouldn’t be blocking cheaper, faster-to-build clean energy at every turn. In reality, the only “emergency” his administration recognizes is when fossil fuel plants face scheduled retirements, laying bare his true agenda: protecting corporate polluters and sticking working families with the bill.
August 21: USDA targets renewable energy development on national forest lands with “land use efficiency” directive
Action: Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins issued a directive instructing the Forest Service to prioritize “land use efficiency” when reviewing proposals for power generation projects on national forest lands. Under the new criteria, projects will be evaluated by how much power they would generate per acre. In announcing the policy, USDA claimed it was about “strengthening American energy production” and “reducing reliance on foreign energy sources.” Rollins left little doubt about the intent, declaring that the days of “depending on foreign adversaries” for energy—specifically calling out “foreign-made solar panels”—are over.
Impact: This is part of a growing trend: the Trump administration is rolling out new directives and arbitrary metrics across agencies to choke off renewable energy development. By weaponizing land-use standards, Trump officials are creating barriers designed to tilt the scales against wind and solar, regardless of their economic or environmental benefits. Their rhetoric about reducing reliance on foreign energy is a smokescreen—America is already the world’s largest oil and gas producer, with crude oil production hitting a record high this summer. As the Center for American Progress explains, “We can never be energy independent while we rely on a fuel source [...] controlled by the global market.” Real energy independence comes from building more clean energy. This policy does the opposite—and leaves ratepayers stuck paying for expensive, dirty, volatile energy sources.
August 21: Trump admin forces nearly complete offshore wind farm to halt construction
Action: Citing vague national security “concerns,” the Trump administration issued a stop-work order for Revolution Wind, a project off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut that is more than 80% complete. A federal judge granted Ørsted, the project’s developer, a preliminary injunction to resume construction, but the administration e—or invent new stall tactics—to escalate Trump’s broader war on wind power. Despite years of federal reviews, including clearance from the Pentagon, and holding every required permit, Revolution Wind remains at risk.
Impact: Once operational, Revolution Wind is expected to power 350,000 homes in New England and save ratepayers up to $1.7 billion annually. But the project still faces significant uncertainty. U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth condemned the administration’s rationale as “the height of arbitrary and capricious,” warning that further interference could prevent Revolution Wind from meeting key deadlines and cause “the entire project [to] collapse.” Regardless, the month-long delay has already cost the developers $2.3 million per day, according to court filings. And if Trump’s sabotage succeeds, New England families and businesses would be deprived of much-needed affordable clean energy and forced to pay billions in extraneous electricity costs. Even if Revolution Wind is ultimately completed, the Trump administration has once again sent a chilling message to private investors in U.S. energy infrastructure: the government cannot be trusted to be a reliable partner or keep its promises.
August 21: Trump opens bogus “national security” investigation into wind turbine imports
Action: The Department of Commerce announced it was opening a national security investigation into imports of wind turbines and their components. The move could pave the way for steep new tariffs on the technology—just weeks after Trump dismissed wind power as a “con job” and sneered that turbines are “no good [..] they’re made in China, almost all of them.”
Impact: This marks yet another weaponization of tariff taxes under Trump. While the administration has previously framed his tariff scheme as necessary to “protect American workers” and increase domestic manufacturing to bolster “U.S. national security,” Trump’s decade-plus hatred of “windmills” and ongoing war on the wind industry suggest the move is about one thing: undermining one of the nation’s fastest-growing sources of affordable power. Analysts warn that the manufactured investigation would “raise the price of imported materials that wind projects depend on” and would be “especially painful” for offshore wind projects already underway. By deliberately driving up costs, Trump is attempting to strangle the industry at home and stick American families with higher utility bills.
August 20: Trump extends order forcing Michigan coal plant to remain open
Action: Trump’s DOE issued yet another emergency order requiring an aging Michigan coal plant to stay online, extending a prior directive that had already pushed the plant well past its retirement date.
Impact: Keeping the plant running has already cost ratepayers tens of millions of dollars in just the three months since the first order. Every extra day it operates, working families are stuck with higher utility bills—while the Trump administration continues to sabotage the clean energy projects that could deliver cheaper, more reliable power. Michigan’s top utility regulator estimates that extending the plant’s life even longer will saddle ratepayers with more than $100 million in unnecessary costs. And this is just the beginning: Trump’s DOE has been cooking the books with what experts call an “arbitrary, capricious” and “contrary to law” grid reliability analysis—laying the groundwork to force even more dirty, expensive fossil fuel plants nationwide to run beyond their retirement dates. If they follow through, families nationwide will bear billions of dollars in unnecessary costs.
August 19: Trump’s Commerce Department slaps steel tariff tax on wind turbines and components
Action: The Commerce Department slapped a 50% tariff tax on steel and aluminum used in wind turbines, as well as their parts and components—alongside more than 400 other product categories that will impact everything from auto parts to construction equipment and materials.
Impact: Trump’s erratic tariffs have already wreaked havoc on the economy, costing the average household thousands of dollars. Now, by targeting wind turbines and their components, his policies are making it more expensive to build the energy infrastructure needed to meet soaring demand and expand access to affordable electricity. These added costs will ripple through to higher electricity prices, while creating more uncertainty for an industry already under attack since the day Trump returned to office.
August 18: Trump’s USDA blocks long-standing funding that helped farmers save with solar
Action: USDA Secretary Rollins announced the department will effectively end support for farmers who want to install solar or wind on their land by cutting off access to loan guarantees under the decades-old Rural Energy for America (REAP) Program.
Impact: Although REAP loans come at little cost to taxpayers—since they’re typically repaid—the Trump administration has deliberately gutted the program. Farmers who want to lower their energy bills with renewables will no longer have access to this proven federal financing tool. Rollins framed the move as protecting “prime American farmland,” but as Lloyd Ritter, a former aide to then-Senator Tom Harkin who helped draft the law, told Canary Media, “Farmers themselves are the ones making these decisions [...] they’re doing it because the economics are really beneficial to them.” In fact, more than three-quarters of REAP funds have historically gone to farmers in Republican districts. By cutting off support, Trump isn’t just stripping farmers of a key source of savings and revenue; he’s choking off cheaper, more reliable power for rural communities. As Ritter put it, “They’re hurting MAGA farmers [...] and killing off economic growth in rural America.”
The Cost of Trump’s Oil-Soaked Crusade
Trump’s latest sabotage spree only underscores what has been clear from day one: he isn’t governing to lower costs or strengthen the grid. He’s governing for political retribution and Big Oil donors—launching a direct attack on American families in the process. Every stop-work order, every tariff, every canceled project adds up to the same result: higher bills, fewer jobs, and a dirtier, less reliable energy system.
Trump could be using his power to deliver affordable, reliable, American-made clean energy. Instead, he’s waging an oil-soaked crusade of political retribution that’s as dirty as the fuels he’s propping up: corrupt, costly, and paid for by the American people.
For more information or to speak with a policy expert, please contact Evergreen Action Communications Director Seth Nelson at seth@evergreenaction.com.
Find previous actions Trump has taken to hike energy prices and make life less affordable for American families here.
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