'He has failed': Trump's war on clean power backfires as energy prices skyrocket

President Donald Trump’s pledge to slash energy prices “by half within 12 months” has “failed” spectacularly, argued The New York Times’ editorial board in an op-ed Thursday, which blamed skyrocketing energy prices squarely on the president’s “war on solar and wind power.”

“Mr. Trump ran for president promising to reduce the cost of living and of energy prices in particular,” the op-ed reads. “He has failed so far.”

During Trump’s second term, electricity prices have surged at an unprecedented rate, increasing by 10% in the first half of 2025. The culprit, The New York Times argued, was largely supply constraints caused by the war in Ukraine and the astronomical energy demands of artificial intelligence data centers, the cost of the latter often subsidized by nearby communities.

Yet, instead of embracing more forms of energy production, Trump has waged a “war” on renewable energy sources, making “matters worse” The New York Times argued, and setting the stage for the prices of non-renewable energy sources like gas to increase as well.

“Gas prices will also increase over the next decade, according to Rhodium Group, a think tank, as consumers who would otherwise have driven electric cars continue using vehicles that burn fossil fuels,” the op-ed reads.

Trump has frequently targeted renewable energy sources as “horrible,” having raged against windmills for “causing whales to die in numbers never seen before,” “killing your birds,” "ruining your oceans,” and destroying property values. As such, he repealed a Biden-era tax credit program for clean energy in July, axing billions of dollars’ worth of investments in renewable energy sources.

Trump’s top energy official, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, former oil tycoon, appeared to know back in August that energy prices would continue to soar, admitting it to be a political liability for Republicans, but blamed “Obama-Biden policies” for the price spikes regardless.