There is a ticking time bomb hanging over the U.S. economy. The nation’s electricity grid operators and utilities are projecting rapidly approaching power shortfalls. And instead of helping address the crisis, U.S. energy policy is making a bad situation far worse. 

Power demand is suddenly soaring. New battery and semiconductor manufacturing, reshoring of supply chains, and the arrival of electric vehicles are all driving demand. But it’s the emergence of artificial intelligence and the exponential growth of enormous data centers — with the power needs of small cities — that is game-changing. 

In Virginia — the epicenter for data center growth — Dominion Power, the largest utility in the state, projects electricity demand will jump 85% in the next 15 years. PG&E in California expects electricity demand to rise 70% in the same period. And New York’s grid operator sees power demand jumping as much as 90% over the next 20 years. To meet that, the state will need to triple its installed generating capacity. 

What’s happening in Virginia, California, and New York is also occurring across the country. The U.S. Department of Energy now conservatively estimates that national power demand will double by 2050. 

Meeting that kind of growth would be an enormous challenge by itself. But meeting that new demand while also tearing down the very foundation of our power system is all but impossible. And yet, that’s exactly what’s happening. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has brushed aside countless warnings while pushing a suite of rules that will all but wipe out the nation’s coal power plants by 2032 — and make it practically impossible to build new baseload coal and natural gas power plants to help meet soaring demand. A new rule targeting existing natural gas power plants is also in the works. 

EPA’s power plant strategy will eliminate the backstop of the nation’s grid reliability at the precise moment utilities and grid operators are telling us we need these plants more than ever. 

According to grid experts, the high risk of blackouts during grid emergencies will be a serious threat by the close of the decade. But Americans are already feeling the threat of surging power prices. 

While economy-wide inflation may be retreating, electricity inflation is doing the opposite. According to Bank of America, the year-over-year inflation rate for U.S. electricity prices reached 5.9% in May, up from 3.8% in January. 

In the PJM power market — the nation’s largest serving 65 million Americans from Virginia to New Jersey to Ohio — capacity payments to power plants just jumped 800%. That’s a clear sign of a market short on power. For many consumers, that will mean an almost immediate double-digit jump in their power bills. 

In California, which has touted its leadership in moving to renewable energy, power prices for many consumers have jumped 82% in the past decade. As The Wall Street Journal recently reported, power bills are now often higher than rent — and all but untenable for folks on fixed incomes. Retirees living in mobile homes are now sending half of their Social Security checks straight to utilities each month. 

Is California’s electricity cost nightmare where the U.S. is headed? If this is America’s energy transition leadership, sign the rest of us up for a very different route. 

Americans want — and deserve — affordable, reliable power. But what they’re getting is just the opposite. Our next president will face an electricity crisis — either double down on what clearly isn’t working, or chart a new energy future shaped by the concerns and expertise of the nation’s utilities and grid operators. This shouldn’t be a tough call to make. 

Matthew Kandrach is president of Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, a free-market advocacy organization.