Talking Points on Energy in Trump’s State of the Union

Takeaways

Concern about high energy prices is universal. But Americans aren’t buying Trump’s strategy.
Most Americans (59%) want a mix of clean energy and fossil fuels, not Trump’s ‘worst of the above’ strategy. Even his own voters say building clean energy is important for keeping energy prices down (50%) and support using a mix of clean and fossil fuels (61%).
The President is playing politics when he should be focused on keeping the lights on and the heat running for working people. A new report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA) says more than 20 million American families are behind on their energy bills.
Electricity demand is surging from data center buildout, manufacturing, and electrification. Instead of working to get the energy America needs, Trump is blocking new projects and making it even harder to meet demand.

Public Opinion Research

This data comes from Third Way’s November 2025 survey of 1000 likely voters nationwide with an oversample of Black and Latino voters:

Topline: Concern about high energy costs is near universal.

83% of Americans say their energy costs have increased in the last few years.

Topline: Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of all-of-the-above energy, including both clean energy and fossil fuels.

59% of Americans want a mix of clean energy and fossil fuels.
- 59% of Harris voters want a mix of clean and fossils
- 67% of persuadable voters want a mix of clean energy and fossil fuels
21% want only clean energy
- 34% of Harris voters want only clean energy
- 30% of Black voters want only clean energy
- 17% of persuadable voters want only clean energy
14% want only fossil fuels
- 28% of Trump voters want only fossil fuels
- 9% of persuadables want only fossil fuels

Topline: Energy is less partisan than Trump and Far Left groups want you to believe. Democrats like natural gas – and Republicans like nuclear.

61% of Americans like both natural gas and clean energy.
- 56% of Harris voters are ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ favorable towards natural gas.
68% of Americans are favorable toward wind and solar.
- 93% of Democrats are favorable to wind and solar.
- 37% of Republicans are favorable to wind and solar.
- 82% of Independents are favorable to wind and solar.
Favorability towards clean energy jumps 8 points – from 68% to 76% – when asked about clean energy, including nuclear, wind, and solar.
- 96% of Democrats are favorable toward clean energy, including nuclear.
- 54% of Republicans are favorable to clean when nuclear is included, an almost 20-point jump.
- 74% of Independents are favorable to clean plus nuclear.

Electricity Price Increases

Nationwide retail electricity prices have been rising faster than inflation since 2022, despite promises from the Trump Administration to cut energy costs on day 1 of his second term.

Between May 2024 and May 2025, the average cost of electricity for residential customers nationwide increased by roughly 6.5%. Some states, like Maine, saw spikes of over 36%.

Administration Actions Against Clean Energy

Topline: Trump is making energy dirtier, more expensive, and less reliable by forcing coal plants to stay open past their planned retirement.

The situation is dire, but instead of growing clean energy deployment and solving the natural gas turbine shortage, the Trump administration is spending billions of dollars to keep aging, expensive coal plants that were slated for closure open.
A study by Grid Strategies finds that keeping coal plants running that are slated for retirement by 2028 would cost consumers $3B per year, and the Administration expanding its overreach to keep plants that are over 60 years old running could reach $6B in annual costs for ratepayers. (Note: The average useful life of a coal plant is less than 45 years.)
The administration has focused on delaying planned retirements for aging coal plants and removing air and water quality guidelines that are in place to protect the health of local communities.
The DOE’s emergency orders to keep coal plants in Michigan and Pennsylvania operating will cost consumers across the MISO and PJM regions. It will cost $70M annually to keep Pennsylvania’s Eddystone plant running and $279M for Michigan’s J.H. Campbell plant.

Topline: President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) slashed energy generation at a time of unprecedented load growth and will only exacerbate electricity cost increases.

Because of OBBBA alone, electricity rates are projected to increase between 9-18% in the next 10 years, increasing household energy costs by $170 annually.

Topline: Trump is blocking clean energy projects that could help stabilize prices, including pulling the plug on projects that are nearly completed. He’s wasting billions of dollars and jacking up prices on families.

The Trump Administration attempted to halt construction on five East Coast offshore wind developments. Courts have allowed all 5 pending developments to move forward – but these actions only delay the generation of large amounts of clean and low-cost electricity that will directly benefit American households and businesses.
Decisions like this only grow uncertainty for developers and add risk to vital investments in energy projects. The President is creating an environment where uncertainty and chaos dominate. The war on offshore wind projects in particular has led to massive project cancellations amounting to 26.5 GW across New York, New England, and California.
President Trump is using all levers at his disposal to tie up clean energy projects in bureaucratic red tape, obstructing the construction of projects like CVOW, which is set to deliver enough electricity to power over 650,000 homes.

Note: This graphic only includes actions through October 2025. Key events after October include the Administration’s attempted obstruction of five East Coast offshore wind projects and the implementation of anti-clean energy executive orders.