While gasoline prices have seen a sharp decline in recent times, and natural gas has turned down as well, electricity prices hit an all-time high - again - in January, and are expected to continue to rise through 2016, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), leaving many pointing the finger at President Barack Obama's clean energy policies.
The seasonally adjusted price index for electricity was a record-high 212.290 in January, up from 210.489 in December, which was also a record. Prior to that, the previous high came in March, CNSNews reported.
As for the annual electricity price, it hit a record high of 208.020 in 2014, up from 200.750 in 2013.
Another record set in January was the average price for a kilowatt-hour of electricity, which hit an all-time high for that month of the year. One kilowatt-hour (KWH) of electricity cost, on average, 13.8 cents in January 2015. The BLS noted that it was less than the 14.3-cent cost in June, July and August of last year, but still more than the average cost of a KWH in any month in 2013.
When Obama first took office, costs were about 1.4 cents cheaper per KWH, at 12.4 cents, which costs consumers, on average, an extra $150 per year, according to The Washington Times.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said the average U.S. electricity rates are approximately 38 percent higher than they were in 2001, reported the Daily Caller.
The EIA said it expects retail electricity prices to "increase by 1.1 percent in 2015 and by 1.8 percent in 2016," with the highest rate increases hitting New Englanders.
Rising electricity prices haven't always been the norm in the U.S., though. From 1913 to 1946, the price of electricity actually trended down from 45.5 to 26.6, according to CNSNews. In 1974, at only 44.1, it was still less than it had been in 1913.
Critics say the increase in electricity costs are a direct result of significant efforts made by Obama to establish a clean energy plan and fight global warming. The president's "war on coal" encourages states to shut down coal-fired power plants and consider alternate, cleaner, means of generating electricity.
The president himself even admits his policies are to blame for the rising electricity costs. Back in 2008, Obama candidly told The San Francisco Chronicle that under his cap and trade plan, "electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket."
"Because I'm capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants would have to retrofit their operations" by installing expensive new equipment to comply with the president's standards, a cost that "would be passed onto consumers," Obama explained.
As the Times notes, once the Environmental Protection Agency's carbon-dioxide limitation for power plants are applied under Obama's Climate Action Plan, combined with EPA rules upheld by the Supreme Court, at least 68 coal plants are likely to shut down. In 2013, 39 percent of energy in the U.S. came from coal.
Then we have Obama's 2016 budget proposal, which includes provisions for $4 billion in payments to "support states exceeding the minimum requirements" mandated by the EPA "for the pace and extent of carbon pollution reductions from the power sector," according to the Daily Caller.
States that follow EPA rules and cut emissions from power plants will be rewarded with federal funds, while states that don't comply could be punished by, for example, having their federal highway funding cut off - a bribe of sorts, say critics.
"President Obama's EPA is executing a massive power play, attempting to coerce states into adopting draconian policies that would steeply increase the price of energy," said Phil Kerpen, president of the conservative American Commitment, reported the Caller. "States that don't cooperate are being told they'll have their federal highway funding cut off. That's unconstitutional."
Either way, these federally mandated clean energy policies will increase the price of electricity even more in the coming decades. The EPA estimated its power plant rule, in accordance with Obama's clean energy plan, will result in the loss of about 49 gigawatts of coal-fired power, which the agency says would cause electricity prices to rise by 5.9 percent to 6.5 percent in 2020.
