The Briefing:
- 81% of Americans who have stayed in the same home for at least three years report that their electricity bills have risen, with 28% absorbing increases between 20% and 49%
- About 3 in 4 Americans trust state utility regulators only "a little" or "not at all" to protect their interests — and just 1% express complete trust
- Congress preserved LIHEAP at approximately $4.05 billion for fiscal year 2026, rejecting the Trump administration's elimination proposal — but the administration has renewed the call to zero out the program for FY2027, while the entire federal LIHEAP staff, fired in April 2025, remains unreplaced
One in five Americans has cut back on groceries to cover the electric bill, and roughly a quarter have turned the heating or air conditioning down to uncomfortable levels just to stay current with utilities. A new national survey released this week makes the toll official: America's energy affordability problem has moved well beyond low-income households and is now squeezing families across the income spectrum — at the same moment that a key federal safety net faces its most precarious stretch in decades.
The Survey That Quantified a Household Crisis
Consumer Reports published findings on October 21 from a nationally representative poll of 2,003 U.S. adults, painting a picture of households with little room left to maneuver. Among respondents who had lived in the same home for at least three years, 81% said their electricity bill had gone up in that period, with 28% reporting a jump between 20% and 49%. Electricity prices across major U.S. cities have climbed 14% over the past three years, according to federal data, piling onto the financial pressure that households are already absorbing from sharply higher gasoline and diesel costs tied to the ongoing war in Iran.
Among those whose bills increased, about 3 in 4 said the higher costs had strained their household finances. Households earning less than $85,000 a year were more than twice as likely as higher-earning households to say that strain had been severe.
Sara Enright, Consumer Reports' senior director of safety and energy, told CBS News that people on fixed incomes — students, retirees and others with little budget flexibility — are especially vulnerable to sudden spikes. When bills arrive unexpectedly during peak summer heat, she said, they can be frightening. Her blunt assessment of the trade-offs consumers are making: "People are cutting back on food."
Finger-Pointing Across Party Lines
Survey respondents were clear about who they blame. Utility company profits topped the list, named by 45% of participants as a major driver of their electricity costs. The rapid buildout of data centers and AI systems came in second at 38%, with volatile fossil fuel prices cited by 37% and infrastructure maintenance costs by 36%.
That data center figure carries a forward-looking dimension. A Schneider Electric report projects that national electricity demand will grow 16% by 2029, mainly from the proliferation of data centers. Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, told CBS News that utilities building new infrastructure and raising rates to serve that demand are doing so without meaningful transparency or public input — and the tab lands with residential customers.
The response from survey participants was emphatic: 84% said they would support their local utility creating a separate rate category for large electricity users such as data centers. Half said those facilities should pay all costs of infrastructure built mainly to serve them, and another 39% said they should at least pay more than ordinary residential customers. The finding was consistent regardless of political leaning.
As Enright put it in the Consumer Reports press release, Americans want "costs and risks to stay with the corporate entities that create them — not residential customers."
The Regulator Problem: Distrust Has Become the Default
About 3 in 4 Americans said they trust state utility regulators only "a little" or "not at all" to protect household interests. Just 1% expressed complete trust.
That erosion of confidence has concrete consequences. Unlike other markets where consumers can switch providers, electricity is supplied by regional monopolies, and households have no competitive alternative when rates rise. Wolfe told CBS News that more middle-income households have begun seeking government energy assistance, only to discover they earn too much to be eligible. The federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program caps eligibility at 60% of a state's median income — a threshold that excludes a growing segment of working families who have exhausted every other buffer.
A Safety Net That Congress Preserved — and an Administration That Keeps Targeting It
LIHEAP is currently funded for fiscal year 2026 at approximately $4.05 billion, roughly $20 million above the prior year's level. Trump signed the appropriations legislation on February 3, 2026, after Congress rejected the White House's call to eliminate the program entirely. It was the sixth time in as many budget cycles that the administration proposed zeroing out LIHEAP; lawmakers in both parties have rejected each request, and senators on both sides of the aisle have publicly challenged the rationale that rising energy production will make assistance unnecessary.
But the program is running on fumes administratively. HHS terminated the entire federal LIHEAP staff on April 1, 2025, and those positions have gone unfilled for nearly 18 months. States are expected to administer the program without federal guidance, training or direct support. The administration also slow-walked the release of this year's funds — sparking bipartisan anger in Congress — before eventually disbursing them. Critics warn that nonprofits and community organizations cannot fill the gap at scale, particularly as winter heating season approaches.
The administration has already proposed eliminating LIHEAP for fiscal year 2027 as well. At its peak, in fiscal year 2023, the program distributed $6.1 billion and reached more than 6 million households nationwide. Current funding sits roughly $2 billion below that level, and the program's operational infrastructure has been gutted in the interim.
What Households Can Do Now
Consumer Reports has launched a countermeasure tied directly to the survey's findings. The organization's new Power Smarter initiative includes a service called the CR Bill Decoder, where households can submit their electricity bills anonymously. Consumer Reports will aggregate the data to map pricing trends at the state and national level and use the resulting evidence base to push for regulatory reform.
The information that flows into that tool will confirm what this week's survey already made clear: for a widening share of American households, the monthly electricity bill has become a monthly calculation of what else no longer fits in the budget.
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