It’s 2026, gas prices are still too high, and oil executives are warning the White House that costs could get worse before they get better. The Trump Administration is taking note. 

And if the Democrats want to win in November they will need  to stop talking like policy wonks and start talking like consumers. 

Environmentalists love to talk about climate targets, emissions pathways, and the latest technologies, but voters are thinking about something simpler: the utility bill on the kitchen counter, the price at the pump, and whether the lights are going to stay on in a summer heat wave. 

President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have been hindering our country’s energy resources for the last year and a half. They are paying off companies to stop them from building new energy supplies. Last month, the Interior Department paid TotalEnergies $1 billion to walk away from two offshore wind leases off the coast of New York and North Carolina, projects that would have powered nearly one million homes. Seven states recently sued the Trump Administration over this decision. 

While the Administration pays companies to cancel new power generation, it forces ratepayers to subsidize older, costlier coal plants that should have been retired years ago. The Department of Energy has ordered six aging plants to stay online past their planned retirement. One plant in Michigan racked up over $180 million in costs,........

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