Why do Americans have to pay the fossil fuel industry, month after month, for polluting energy when we can get our energy from the sun and wind for free?

In America, the answer is a simple one—because the fossil fuel industry helped elect our current government.

With the fossil fuel industry getting everything it wants and more, we have little choice but to keep paying for dirty energy. And it’s taking an increasingly heavy toll on the pocketbooks of the American people.

In the last year, electricity prices have reached new heights, with rates now rising twice as fast as the cost of living. There are several contributing factors: natural gas prices are up 40% compared to last year, energy costs associated with data center demand are being passed on to ratepayers, and Trump’s tariffs are increasing transmission line construction costs and the price of energy imports from Canada and Mexico.

Keeping the lights on, staying cool during extreme heat events, and living comfortably are increasingly becoming rights of the few. The 1 in 6 households that already struggle to pay their electric bills will continue to increase in number, with residents forced to make harder and harder choices between power and other essentials.

So it’s no surprise that people are angry—or that this is shaping up to be a core issue in the midterm elections.

Despite Trump’s campaign promises, electricity prices have increased by 10% since he took office in January. And between damaging tariffs, his administration’s war on solar and wind, and increased support for expensive fossil fuels, it’s clear that his administration is directly responsible for rising prices. That’s why they’ve been quick to point fingers at clean energy, calling wind and solar the “scam of the century” and blaming Biden-era green policies for our current situation.

Unfortunately for them, the evidence points to one undeniable truth: if we want to make electricity cheap again, we need clean energy.

The facts haven’t changed. Wind and solar are the cheapest sources of electricity around. Clean energy projects can be brought online much more quickly than fossil fuel power plants. And at the end of the day, energy from the wind and sun is always going to be free.

As we continue to fight for energy affordability and the clean energy future we deserve, let’s remind our elected officials that there is a very tangible cost to inaction—and we’re counting on them to fight for a better deal.