Locator: 48678ELECTRICITY.
Note: in a blog like this with a lot of numbers / data points, there will be typographical and content errors.
This blog is being re-posted as originally posted back on June 4, 2025 (March, 2025, data) but the numbers are updated to reflect the most recent data, the May, 2025, data.
Link here to The New York Times.
Of course, Trump is being blamed.
Let's not mention New Yorkers refusing that natural gas pipeline.
From The New York Times:
The cost of electricity is rising across the country, forcing Americans to pay more on their monthly bills and squeezing manufacturers and small businesses that rely on cheap power.
And some of President Trump’s policies risk making things worse, despite his promises to slash energy prices, companies and researchers say.
This week, the Senate is taking up Mr. Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill, which has already passed the House. In its current form, that bill would abruptly end most of the Biden-era federal tax credits for low-carbon sources of electricity like wind, solar, batteries and geothermal power.
Repealing those credits could increase the average family’s energy bill by as much as $400 per year within a decade, according to several studies published this year.
$400 / year at worst within a decade. Oh give me a break. Surging? As The New York Times says. At most, an increase of $400 / year within a decade.
So, on average, $40 / year increase.
Why didn't The New York Times say $4,000 over the next 100 years. Four-thousand dollars certainly sounds a lot worse than $400.
Average electricity bill in the US:
- 2023: average residential customer: $136.84, 855 kWh / month = 16.00 cents / kWh;
- 2024: average residential customer: $140.90, 855 kWh / month = 16.48 cents / kWh;
- 2025, April: average residential customer: $154.76, 855 kWh / month = 18.1 cents / kWh;
Texas, 2025: $170.63, higher than the national average due to increased consumption during extreme weather conditions.
Bottom line:
- $400 increase within a decade -- > increase an average of $40 / year = $40 / 12 = $3.33 / month
- $3.33 / $154.76 = 2% increase per year. And that generated the story in The New York Times? Oh, give me a break.
Whatever.
- $155 / 30 days = $5.17 / day.
- $3.33 / 30 days = 11 cents / day.
- 11 / 517 = 2%.
Probably consistent with inflation.
Americans have it so great. The rest of the world would like to have our energy costs.
What's killing Americans when it comes to inflation:
- health care costs
- college tuition
- McMansions as the only option for starter homes
- automobile insurance rates
- EVs
Residential electricity is not on that list.
Now, the most recent rates by state.
North Dakota, once again, the lowest among all 57 states, last column, all sectors.
North Dakota: 8.34 cents.
Iowa, poster child for wind: 8.99 cents.
Texas: 10.22 cents.
California: holy mackerel -- 26.03 cents! Is anyone paying attention?
Those numbers are in the final column, "all sectors."
For commercial which is much, much more expensive:
California, commercial:
- May, 2025: 22.91 cents
- May, 2024: 23.71 cents
North Dakota, commercial:
- May, 2025: 7.49 cents
- May, 2024: 7.22 cents
Residential costs: North Dakota is among the lowest, but not the lowest. For May, 2025:
- Idaho: 11.88 cents
- Utah: 12.63 cents
- Montana: 12.90 cents
- Oklahoma: 12.94 cents
- Missouri: 12.97 cents
- North Dakota: 13.07 cents
- Washington State with all that hydroelectric power: 13.67 cents
- California: 35.03 cents
Commercial costs: North Dakota is the lowest. For May, 2025:
- North Dakota: 7.49 cents
- California: 22.91 cents
Industrial costs: North Dakota is among the lowest but not the lowest, mostly because North Dakota does not have a large industrial base.
