Who Can We Trust Today?

 After being deluged by campaign commercials during the recent primary season, and campaign commercials in general, it is obvious that almost all politicians are liars (even is statements aren't outright lies they are designed to mislead.) 

I just read an article on the APnews website (https://apnews.com/article/electricity-utility-bills-west-virginia-trump-coal-38ad648f99a42eb2c73d7affaddadbcb). I use their news app regularly even though they definitely suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. The title of the article was “Trump promised to cut electricity costs in half. Bills in energy-rich West Virginia now top mortgages.”

One lady focused on it the article claims that heating her small WV house cost her $940 for February. Another lady, who has a teen age daughter still living at home, claims that her electric bills also totaled over $5000 for the year, even though her home is slightly more than 1,000 sf and her AC was broken last summer.

Over the four hottest months of the Missouri summer our electricity bill totaled $962. We have an air conditioned 2,100 sf home. Our hot water heater and dryer run on electricity. We left the AC on, set on 80, in our parked motorhome to keep the humidity down during the summer. It seems impossible that these ladies could have used over twice as much as we did.

Nowhere in the article does it mention actual cost of electricity per kwh, so I did some checking. The figures below come from the EIA.gov website (https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a). The following prices are noted as being “Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector” and are from the “Residential” column, for January 2026. They are cents/kwh.

In January 2026 the US national average was 17.45. For “South Atlantic” states (Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia & West Virginia) it was 15.64. The District of Columbia and Maryland topped the list at 23.72 & 20.61 respectively. West Virginia came in at 14.77.

Why the article picked on West Virginia I’m not sure. Was it because WV voted overwhelmingly for Trump? Or because, a quote: “Coal remains king here, but it wears a pricey crown. The state is an outlier nationwide because of its stubborn resistance to adopting cleaner, cheaper sources of energy, such as nuclear power, natural gas – even though it’s one of the nation’s top producers – and renewables like wind and solar. Instead, West Virginia clings to aging coal-fired electric plants more than anywhere else in the country – about 87% of all production.” I don’t understand why coal is at fault when it is the main source of electricity production in WV and the cost of WV electricity is 14.77 versus 17.45 nationally.

It is interesting that the article did not mention that the cost of electricity in 5 states is over 30 cents/kwh (Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, California, Hawaii), over twice what it costs in WV.

Texas is the national leader in wind power generation and 2nd in solar power, electricity  costs 15.69, more than WV. California is touted at 2nd largest producer of green energy (solar, hydropower & wind- 79,544 GWh, 30,549 GWh & 14,815 GWh), electricity cost 30.29, over twice what it costs in WV.

Three states come in at less than 12 cents/kwh North Dakota 10.92, Nebraska 11.76 & Missouri 11.80.

Nationwide electricity prices increased by 9.5% from January 2025 to January 2026. The largest increase was in the Middle Atlantic states, 14.1% .

Nationwide average retail energy prices increased from 12.65 in 2015 to 17.45 in January 2026, 38%. During that same time the Consumer Price Index increased from 236.9 to 325.3, 37%. It appears to  me that average retail electricity prices have increased at the same rate as prices in general.

 

https://www.integrityenergy.com/blog/the-top-10-states-paving-the-way-to-a-sustainable-energy-future/

https://www.bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic/data/consumerpriceindexhistorical_us_table.htm


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