Your electric bill probably went up this summer, and your gas bill is about to follow.
According to the Energy Information Administration, residential electricity prices have climbed roughly 20% over the past three years, with another 2-3% bump expected through 2025.
Meanwhile, the National Energy Assistance Directors Association estimates Americans now owe a record $20 billion in overdue utility payments.
Natural gas sets the price for electricity in most of the country, and gas prices spiked hard after 2022.
Add in aging infrastructure that utilities are finally repairing after decades of neglect — transmission lines, substations, storm-hardened poles.
Someone pays for that, and it isn't the shareholders.
Utilities from Virginia to Texas are filing rate cases citing massive new demand from AI facilities and crypto mining operations.
In Georgia, regulators approved a plan letting Georgia Power bill ratepayers for new gas plants built largely to serve data centers.
You're not using that electricity, but your bill may help pay for it anyway.
Regulators are also approving higher returns on equity for utility shareholders.
In plain terms, that's the profit margin a utility is allowed to earn.
When that number goes up — and it has in several states over the past two years — customers absorb the difference.
Consumer advocates say many of these increases get approved with minimal pushback because rate cases are long, technical, and poorly attended.
Utilities are disconnecting far fewer customers than during the pandemic, but only because many states expanded payment plans and shutoff protections.
Those protections are expiring in several states this year.
First, check whether you're on a time-of-use plan without realizing it — running the dishwasher or laundry after 9 p.m. can genuinely cut costs.
Second, ask your utility about budget billing, which averages payments across the year so winter doesn't wreck you.
Third, look up your state's consumer advocate office before the next rate case; public comments do occasionally move the needle.
And if you qualify, LIHEAP federal assistance is underused — roughly 80% of eligible households never apply.
Several states have hearings scheduled in the coming months, and utility companies are asking for some of the largest increases in years.
If you're not paying attention, you'll find out when the bill arrives. **Our take:** Rising utility bills aren't a mystery of nature — they're a stack of decisions made in hearing rooms most of us never enter.
The people benefiting are utilities, their shareholders, and the data centers getting subsidized power.
The people paying are households with no leverage and no lobbyist.
Final Thoughts
Until more Americans show up to those hearings, expect the trend line to keep pointing up.