How to Win the Energy Debate in Your State
Launching the New Blue States High Rates interactive website for America's Birthday.
Today, we are celebrating America’s 250th birthday by launching the all-new interactive Blue States, High Rates website featuring state electricity profiles for the original thirteen colonies.
The website builds on the success of our December 2025 report by providing our readers with the information they need to win the energy affordability debate in each state. More profiles (beyond the original thirteen) will be uploaded in the coming weeks.
Before we jump into the website features, we want to give credit to Sarah Montalbano, who has been the driving force behind this project to expand the Blue State, High Rates analysis. Make sure to subscribe to her Substack!
Meet BlueStatesHighRates.com
The energy affordability debate rages on in America.
BlueStatesHighRates.com seeks to answer a simple question: “Why do blue states tend to have the highest electricity rates in the country?”
The answer is public policy.
Federal data show 86 percent of states with electricity prices above the national average in the continental U.S. are reliably blue, having voted for the Democratic nominee for president in the 2020 and 2024 elections. In contrast, 80 percent of the 10 states with the lowest electricity prices are reliably red, defined as having voted for the Republican candidate in these contests.
Furthermore, the graph below shows that prices have risen much faster in blue states than in red or purple states. While all states saw price increases during this time, blue states have seen prices rise much faster than red and purple states since 2020.
Why are these blue states separating from the pack?
More than almost any other product, electricity prices are a direct result of state energy policies because, under the Federal Power Act (FPA), states have broad authority to determine which resources supply their grids. In traditionally “blue states,” this often means enacting energy policies that artificially drive up prices.
We identified six key factors that drive up electricity prices in states across the country:
Denying natural gas access,
Whether the state has protections to insulate consumers from potential price impacts from data centers.
Many of the states with the highest electricity prices in the initial release have multiple harmful policies that compound the problem, making electricity more expensive for families and businesses.
For example, New England states like Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut have aggressive RPS mandates.
These mandates make it more difficult to justify investing in new natural gas pipelines (and New York has been blocking access anyway) or in natural gas power plants, because some policymakers and regulators erroneously argue that the mandates eliminate the need for new natural gas pipeline infrastructure. The result is an inadequate supply of natural gas that unnecessarily increases fuel costs and wholesale power prices.
Adding insult to injury, these states’ participation in a carbon dioxide cap-and-trade program layers on additional costs, resulting in some of the highest retail electric rates in America.
Conclusion
We will likely do deeper dives detailing how these criteria can affect retail electricity prices in the future, but for now, enjoy exploring the new site and have a safe and happy Fourth of July.
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Washington appears to be an anomaly. One of the bluest states, but moderate power rates. Not so?WA is is more complicated. Public power hydro dominated rates are among the lowest in the nation in Red Eastern WA, while Blue Western WA dependent rates are rapidly rising and will approach CA rates. Public power is regulated locally, and state regulated otherwise.
Climate idealogue Gov Inslee guided a Dem dominated legislature to pass the most restrictive climate legislation in the nation including a ban on importation of coal power, and an effective ban on new natural gas generation. A carbon tax on all fossil fuel energy has been implemented: currently over $70 per tonne of carbon that escalates about 8% per year. That is 250% higher than CA's. $5 billion has been collected in just over 3 years. That is on all energy, gasoline, diesel, heating nat gas.
I hope that Sarah B. Does a case study of WA to provide granularity and starkly demonstrate the red/blue divergence.
Thank you for this analysis Sarah. When you get to California, please note there are state-specific policies needlessly raising electricity rates. California has the greatest amount of battery storage and solar of any state.
Per CAISO, https://www.caiso.com/documents/key-statistics-may-2026.pdf
16,531 MW batteries on 06/01/26 As of 06/11/26, 23,000 MW Solar 12,332 MW Wind.
In Californians for Green Nuclear Power's (CGNP's) physics and engineering-based analysis, inverter-based resource (IBR) generation is "junk power" because IBRs fail to contribute meaningful amounts of synchronous grid inertia (SGI,) an essential grid reliability service. Generators which contribute large amounts of SGI are like giant flywheels like Diablo Canyon Power Plant. See the June 11, 2026 GreenNUKE article, "Why is Grid Inertia Still Important:" https://greennuke.substack.com/p/why-is-grid-inertia-still-important
This seems to be an example of the power of aggressive lobbying paired with ideological bias. The reality is that physical laws will not be repealed by any legislative action. As the April 28, 2025 mid-day Iberian Peninsula blackout illustrates, the consequences of ignoring physical laws are deadly and expensive. CGNP has learned that Spain is now burning much more natural gas to insure adequate SGI at all times. The reason for using natural gas instead of nuclear is the Spanish PSOE government has decreed that nuclear power is supposed to be completely shut down by 2035 as Spain emulates Germany and the U.K., among other left-leaning Western governments. Per the U.S. EIA, the fuel cost for nuclear power is stable at about 1/4 the cost of natural gas or coal on a BTU basis.