FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 20, 2026
PRESS CONTACT: Unai Montes, u.montes@peoplesaction.org, 310-962-7369 (Bilingual)
Wisconsin Assemblymember, Former Connecticut Regulatory Chair and California Commissioner, and New York and Nevada Community Groups Say Cheaper Bills Are Possible Today
February 2026 press briefing transcript and video
Washington D.C. – As more Americans struggle to afford what they need to live, investor-owned utility companies across the country are boasting about how raising energy bills helps them lock in billions in profits. In a press briefing organized by People’s Action Institute, local officials, former regulators, nonprofit leaders and policy experts made it clear that working families do not need to wait for the results of the 2026 midterm elections for their utility bills to come down.
“Americans are struggling to pay bills from their investor-owned utilities,” Blueprint for Affordable Energy Coauthor Mónica Mariko Embrey said. “Energy bills outpaced inflation, while investor-owned utilities are doubling down on more expensive fossil fuel infrastructure to maximize future profits.”
The Blueprint for Affordable Energy, launched during today’s press conference, prioritizes five solutions to bring relief to households struggling with affordability, the effects of the climate crisis, and public health challenges:
- Protect working families by stopping shutoffs and utility debt, and limiting rate hikes to protect our most vulnerable families.
- Stop relying on fossil fuels because they’ve proven to be expensive, dirty, and unreliable.
- Build renewable energy because it’s proven to be cleaner, cheaper, and faster.
- Prioritize families, not Wall Street. States can take action by capping utility profits, making utilities pay their fair share, and make utilities pay for blowing their budget when they are overspending on infrastructure.
- Build the energy system of the future. Data centers and infrastructure overbuilding drive up utility bills, and keep fossil fuel infrastructure online longer than it’s needed, forcing working families to unfairly shoulder these costs. States should enact policy guardrails to stop utilities from boosting the price tag of upgrades so they can raise rates for consumers, end blank checks from state governments and make big tech pay their fair share. Additionally, states must consider cross-cutting policies, including alternative financing, public power, and increasing transparency and oversight.
“We stand at a pivotal moment in our nation’s history as tech billionaires seek to impinge upon our communities and our natural resources with AI and data centers,” Wisconsin State Assembly Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde, D-Milwaukee, said. “Communities have made themselves heard on this issue. We need to pause rapid data center expansion in order to protect communities and our natural resources and to protect our natural constituencies of land, air, and water.”
Rep. Moore Omokunde was joined in Wednesday’s briefing by:
- Former EPA Regional Administrator and CA Public Utilities Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves,
- Former CT Public Utilities Regulatory Authority Chair Marissa Gillett,
- Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) Executive Director Laura Martin, and
- People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH) Buffalo Executive Director Dawn Wells-Clyburn, and
- Blueprint for Affordable Energy coauthors Victoria Kaplan and Mónica Mariko Embrey.
“There is a perverse investment signal in traditional utility regulation that encourages investor-owned utilities to prioritize large, upfront capital expenditure investments over lower-cost operational solutions,” Former CT Public Utilities Regulatory Authority Chair Marissa Gillett said. “We’re focused on Utility Return on Equity (ROE) because it undervalues what the utilities and their investors are accumulating. Lowering ROE can be done. There are legislatures that have bills to lower ROE under consideration in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and I lowered ROE when I was the chair of the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.”
Polling proves electricity bills are a “major” source of stress for more than one-third of all Americans. Since 2020, electricity prices have risen by over 30%, outpacing the general rate of inflation. 14 million U.S. households are facing significant utility debt, with total unpaid, overdue balances topping $23 billion. American households have been denied cleaner, more reliable, and more affordable energy while corporate utilities leverage fossil fuel subsidies and tax incentives and put shareholder returns above meeting people’s basic needs. Three out of every four American households pay monthly bills to corporate utilities that are posting record-breaking profits. These profits coincide with significant rate increases for consumers. Corporate utilities requested a record $31 billion in rate increases in 2025, more than double the $15 billion requested in 2024.
“Temperatures in Nevada reach 120 degrees, so a utility shutoff means a risk of death,” Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) Executive Director Laura Martin said. “Despite this, our Public Utilities Commission has allowed our Berkshire Hathaway-owned monopoly utility, NV Energy, to raise rates so they can reward shareholders. Their so-called ‘daily demand charge’ artificially increases the cost of already unaffordable monthly bills, forcing ratepayers to pay for the cost of new dirty fossil fuel plants that make our communities even hotter.”
“Buffalo, New York is the third poorest city and has the second oldest housing stock in the nation,” People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH) Buffalo Executive Director Dawn Wells-Clyburn said. “As a post-industrial community we’re faced with many environmental challenges, including more than 55 identified brownfields, high rates of respiratory illnesses, as well as lead poisoning. Our median income is $40,000. Energy affordability is front and center, and in New York, corporate utilities are winning approval for costly, gold-plated infrastructure investments like fracked- gas distribution, pipe mains, and service lines – that customers are forced to pay for – which are a clear violation of the spirit and letter of the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).”
“The warming of our climate has been presenting itself with extreme weather events,” Former EPA Regional Administrator and CA Public Utilities Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves said. “In California, it’s in the form of catastrophic wildfires, caused in some cases by the lack of upkeep of utilities transmission and distribution infrastructure. What we’re seeing today is a 10 to 24% rate increase due to these wildfire costs. The Blueprint for Affordable Energy points out the strategies that we need to be looking at and addressing moving forward, here in California, and throughout the nation.”