RIPTON, Vt. – In an era where environmental regulations have faced significant rollbacks under the Trump administration, and both global temperatures and U.S. carbon emissions have escalated, climate activist Bill McKibben finds an unexpected source of optimism: the sun.

Despite the biting cold of a recent winter day, McKibben remains steadfast in his belief in solar energy, which has powered his Vermont home affordably for a quarter of a century. Recently, he upgraded to his fourth set of solar panels. During a discussion following this installation, McKibben expressed confidence that President Donald Trump’s opposition to solar and other cost-effective green energies might backfire against the GOP in upcoming elections, especially as electricity bills continue to climb.

While previous administrations under Biden and Obama actively supported solar, wind, and other renewable resources as critical tools in combating climate change, Trump’s policies have favored traditional fossil fuels. This was evident last month when the administration halted progress on five major offshore wind projects, although judicial decisions have since allowed three to proceed. Additionally, federal incentives for clean energy, including those for residential solar installations, lapsed at the end of December.

With electricity costs on the rise across the United States, McKibben anticipates this issue will become a catalyst for political transformation.

“There’s a growing political shift occurring in response to these rising electric costs,” McKibben predicted, drawing a parallel to how egg prices influenced the 2024 election. “I foresee electricity prices playing a pivotal role in the 2026 election.” Analysts have noted that inflation, impacting everyday expenses, proved challenging for Democrats in the last presidential election.

The Trump administration and a bipartisan group of governors on Friday tried to step up pressure on the operator of the nation’s largest electric grid to take urgent steps to boost power supplies in the mid-Atlantic and keep electricity bills from rising even higher.

“Ensuring the American people have reliable and affordable electricity is one of President Trump’s top priorities,” said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers.

Renewable energy prices drop around the world

Globally, the price of wind and solar power is plummeting to the point that they are cheaper than fossil fuels, the United Nations found. And China leads the world in renewable energy technology, with one of its electric car companies passing Tesla in annual sales.

“We can’t economically compete in a world where China gets a lot of cheap energy and we have to pay for really expensive energy,” McKibben told The Associated Press, just after he installed a new type of solar panels that can hang on balconies with little fuss.

When Trump took office in January 2025, the national average electricity cost was 15.94 cents per kilowatt-hour. By September it was up to 18.07 cents and then down slightly to 17.98 cents in October, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

That’s a 12.8% increase in 10 months. It rose more in 10 months than the previous two years. People in Maryland, New Jersey and Maine have seen electricity prices rise at a rate three times higher than the national average since October 2024.

At 900 kilowatt-hours per month, that means the average monthly electricity bill is about $18 more than in January 2025.

Democrats blame Trump for rising electric bills

This week, Democrats on Capitol Hill blamed rising electric bills on Trump and his dislike of renewable energy.

“From his first day in office, he’s made it his mission to limit American’s access to cheap energy, all in the name of increasing profits for his friends in the fossil fuel industry. As a result, energy bills across the country have skyrocketed,” Illinois Rep. Sean Casten said at a Wednesday news conference.

“Donald Trump is the first president to intentionally raise the price of something that we all need,” Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, also a Democrat, said Wednesday on the Senate floor. “Nobody should be enthused about paying more for electricity, and this national solar ban is making everybody pay more. Clean is cheap and cheap is clean.”

Solar panels on McKibben’s Vermont home

McKibben has been sending excess electricity from his solar panels to the Vermont grid for years. Now he’s sending more.

As his dog, Birke, stood watch, McKibben, who refers to his home nestled in the Green Mountains of Vermont as a “museum of solar technology” got his new panels up and running in about 10 minutes. This type of panel from the California-based firm Bright Saver is often referred to as plug-in solar. Though it’s not yet widely available in the U.S., McKibben pointed to the style’s popularity in Europe and Australia.

“Americans spend three or four times as much money as Australians or Europeans to put solar panels on the roof. We have an absurdly overcomplicated permitting system that’s unlike anything else on the rest of the planet,” McKibben said.

McKibben said Australians can obtain three hours of free electricity each day through a government program because the country has built so many solar panels.

“And I’m almost certain that that’s an argument that every single person in America would understand,” he said. “I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t say: ‘I’d like three free hours of electricity.’”

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Swinhart reported from Vermont. Borenstein reported from Washington. Matthew Daly contributed to this report from Washington.

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