There's a secretive force driving up your electricity bill, but it's NOT just data centers.

Let me explain…

Private utility companies, like PG&E, Exelon, Duke, and Edison, serve nearly 70 percent of electricity customers in the country. Even though they provide a public service that we all rely on to survive, they’re owned by investors and driven by maximizing profits.

They’re allowed to exist as monopolies because it’s too expensive and impractical for multiple companies to build and operate complicated electricity infrastructure. In exchange, private utilities submit to strict regulation that is supposed to keep them from price-gouging customers who have no other choices in the market. 

Every state has a utility commission that sets the rates we pay to keep our lights on. The rates are supposed to keep prices affordable for customers while making sure utilities can cover their operating costs and deliver a fair return to their investors.

But that’s not what’s happening. Private utility electricity rates have increased far more than inflation over the past few years. These rate hikes have delivered electrifying profits, which have surged by over 35 percent since 2021.

And it’s only going to get worse. In 2025 alone, private utilities demanded a record $31 billion in rate increases, affecting 81 million customers.

If your electricity bill is typically $200 a month, that means about $30 of it padded your private utility’s bottom line, instead of improving your service. These profits can go towards fancy corporate PR campaigns, private jet trips for executives, and lavish executive pay packages.

How are they getting away with this? Because there is no federal law barring private utilities from using your money for political activities, like lobbying legislators and commissioners and making campaign donations.

Private utilities’ lobbying hit a 10-year high last year. And in states where commissioners are elected, rather than appointed, candidates routinely take money from donors linked to the utilities that the commissioners are supposed to regulate.

Congress used to bar private utilities from making political contributions. But that federal law was repealed in 2005, allowing private utilities to make direct campaign contributions to regulators, politicians, and political parties. Some states still have stricter campaign finance laws that prevent these bribes — I mean, contributions. But in the states that don’t, commissions approved higher rates — enabling private utilities to each rake in, on average, an additional $4 million in profits every year.

This political spending isn’t just corrupt; it’s dangerous. The deadliest fire in California’s history, the 2018 Camp Fire, was caused by PG&E’s neglect of an aging transmission line. In the wake of that tragedy, PG&E spent nearly $10 million lobbying state lawmakers — with most of it going towards proposals to reduce its liability for wildfires.

The massive electricity rate hikes spanning the entire country aren’t happening simply because utility services have gotten that much more expensive or customers have been receiving better service.

It’s because they’ve bought off the system that’s supposed to keep them in check.  

This is a matter of greed, plain and simple. As a result, utility CEOs are raking it in: The 10 highest-paid utility company executives, whose companies collectively serve nearly 60 million people, each made about $22 million on average last year.

It’s a vicious cycle. Private utilities demand ever-higher rate increases from commissions that are in their pockets. These rate increases inflate their profits, which they then use to lobby the commissions, bankroll politicians and regulators, and fight against any initiatives at the ballot box that would curb their power.

All this at a time when millions of Americans are struggling to pay their bills.

We need to end this vicious cycle and rein in these politically powerful corporations that are ripping us off. Here’s how.

At the federal level, Congress can cap utility profits and bar private utilities from using customers’ money to fund lobbying, political contributions, and fancy private jet trips for executives. One piece of legislation, the Lowering Utility Bills Act, is estimated to save every American household an average of $500 a year.

States are working to crack down, too. Since 2023, at least 22 states have introduced or passed bills that bar utilities from using customer payments to fund political activities. Connecticut’s law has saved customers an estimated $10 million since it was passed in 2023.

States can also rein in private utilities’ excessive profits. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has proposed limiting the reasons for rate increases and requiring utilities to reveal how much of a rate increase will go to investors instead of better service.

The ultimate solution is getting rid of private utilities altogether and putting utilities under public ownership. Publicly owned utilities are beholden to you, the taxpayer — not Wall Street investors. They’re run just like public schools, or libraries, or any other local public agency, and are overseen by local officials. Publicly-owned utilities serve 55 million people, who are reaping the benefits. Rates are typically lower and outages are both less frequent and shorter.

The good news is you can organize with your neighbors to bring your private utility into public ownership. More than a dozen communities are fighting to do so right now, from Clearwater, Florida to Ann Arbor, Michigan.

And if your public utility commissioners are elected, you can work to elect commissioners who will answer to customers, not utility interests.

Private utilities have shown time and time again that they operate like any other private corporation with too much market power: fleecing customers to line their own pockets while bankrolling the politicians that are supposed to keep them in check.

It’s time to cut out the greedy middleman and put this public good where it belongs: in the hands of the public.