Every month, West Virginia resident Rebecca Michalski said she steels herself before opening her electric bill, describing a pattern of high charges that keep her falling further behind even as she tries to reduce usage. In Rainelle, W.Va., the Associated Press reported that Michalski said her February charge was $940.08—more than her check—and that she took out a loan after getting a cut-off notice during an extended arctic blast.
Michalski said she turned off lights during the day and relied on an energy-efficient bulb at night, but still accumulated statements “totaling thousands of dollars,” the Associated Press reported. She told the Associated Press she feels sick when she sees the bill and described the dread of opening it, saying, “Every time you see that power bill, you’re just sick,” and adding, “I already know before I open it. I just dread seeing how much.”
The Associated Press reported that Michalski and other West Virginians have turned to social media to demand answers as soaring utility costs sometimes exceed rents and mortgage payments in a state the article describes as energy-rich but among the poorest parts of the country. The report also tied the financial pressure to the choices families make when they say they have to decide between paying for food or heat.
The Associated Press said Trump made electricity affordability central to his campaign pitch of “make America affordable again,” promising to cut Americans’ electricity bills by half during his first year to 18 months in office. In a campaign quote included in the report, Trump said: “And if it doesn’t work out, you’ll say, ‘Oh well, I voted for him, I still got them down a lot,’” adding, “You will never have had energy so low as you will under a certain gentleman known as Donald J. Trump.”
But the Associated Press reported that the expected result has not materialized in the way Trump promised, pointing to broader price pressures. It cited the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index, saying electricity increased 4.8% in February nationwide and that piped natural gas prices rose 10.9% compared with a year earlier, noting that those increases came even before energy costs were further influenced by attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran.
The report also described how West Virginians’ frustration is blending with political concern as electricity costs become an issue in recent elections and as midterms approach. It cited an analysis by the nonprofit PowerLines that residents may not see relief soon because new gas and electricity rate hike requests could affect more than 80 million Americans, and it said an AP-NORC poll conducted in March found 35% of U.S. adults were “extremely” or “very” concerned about affording electricity in the next few months.
In the West Virginia debate over rates and energy policy, the Associated Press reported that the state’s continued reliance on coal-fired electricity is a key factor, with about 87% of generation coming from coal-fired plants. The report said the state’s Republican-led government has doubled down on that reliance, describing past federal regulations and restrictions as drivers of the problem, and it said Trump has promoted coal, including through photo ops with coal miners and claims about “beautiful, clean coal.”
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers, quoted by the Associated Press, said: “Lowering electricity prices is a top priority for President Trump,” and she attributed the higher costs to former President Joe Biden while saying the administration is “aggressively unleashing reliable energy sources like coal and natural gas.” The AP report said Trump has forced some unprofitable coal-powered plants to remain open, rolled back pollution standards for them, and provided hundreds of millions of dollars for improvements.
The Associated Press also quoted Jamie Van Nostrand, policy director at the nonprofit Future of Heat Initiative and a former West Virginia University professor who wrote a book on the state’s reliance on coal. Van Nostrand said that in West Virginia, “If you’re not 100% in on coal, then you’re a traitor,” and he described the affordability question to residents in terms of whether they are “OK paying twice as much as you should be for electricity.”
According to the Associated Press, the rates have risen significantly over time under the oversight of West Virginia’s Public Service Commission, a three-member panel that the report said includes appointees with industry and lobbying experience. The article cited that average household electricity rates per kilowatt-hour surged 73% from 2015 to 2025, natural gas increased 51% per 1,000 cubic feet, and water rose 45% per 1,000 gallons through 2025. It also said that for some residents, incomes have not kept pace, citing Urban Institute data that the state is the only place in the country where median inflation-adjusted household income was lower in 2023 than in 1970.
In the report, residents described what the bills mean day to day: Michalski, who the AP said is disabled and uses a walker, described trying to manage energy use but saying she cannot turn off the heater. She told the Associated Press that when she can’t pay, utility cutoffs leave people “sitting in the dark,” and she said she expects that to happen to others as well.
The Associated Press also reported broader concerns that the combination of extreme weather, rising costs of maintaining and upgrading infrastructure, higher natural gas prices, and more power demand from artificial-intelligence and cloud data centers could intensify pressure on ratepayers. The report said that some West Virginians—particularly in areas considering or hosting data centers—have protested over planned projects and have questioned noise, water use, and impacts on electricity prices. It cited Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s statement that a planned $4 billion data center in Berkeley County would be “a historic win” but reported that his statement did not explain where the needed water or electricity would come from.
At the same time, the Associated Press said the utility cost problem spans household budgets and politics, drawing analogies to other affordability spikes that can drive voter attention. The report said Charles Hua, founder of PowerLines, described utility costs as the new affordability issue akin to rising egg prices, saying in the AP report that this could make it a player in the fall elections to control Congress.
When asked what comes next after bills rise, residents in the AP report described limited options and growing alarm. Michalski said, “They come and cut off your power. Then you’re sitting in the dark,” and she told the Associated Press: “And I think for a lot of other people, it’s gonna happen too.”