The average retail price of electricity is up almost 30% since 2020, with states like California and Georgia seeing prices spike by nearly 80% during the summer months compared to 2020 rates. American families, facing higher costs for essentials like food, housing, and utilities, cannot keep up. Almost 25% of Americans were unable to pay their utility bill at least once within the last 12 months as they compromise between keeping the lights on and managing other costly essentials.

Elected officials are not powerless when it comes to helping their constituents. They have the opportunity to utilize their platform and resources to address rising utility bills and bring transparency to the opaque process of setting customer rates. Private, investor-owned utilities (IOU), which provide the majority of electric and natural gas services in the United States, need to file rate cases with regulators to request approval to increase the cost of service. Under Supreme Court precedent, rates should be “just and reasonable.” Despite these guardrails, in the first half of 2023, IOU returns averaged 9.6%,
higher than any Wall Street asset manager’s return forecast. This shows no sign of slowing down. Utility regulators received or approved $29 billion in rate hikes in the first two quarters of 2025.

This guide outlines how lawmakers can monitor and intervene in these utility rate cases to try to lower costs for constituents.