Conservatives Claim Solar Drives Up Electric Bills, But A New Study Says Otherwise

October 11, 2026

Trump famously hates, HATES clean energy. While we tend to think of his batsh!t insane obsession with windmills he’s made plenty of crazy comments about solar energy too. What folks don’t think about much is that conservatives have fought developing clean energy including and especially wind and solar ever since President Jimmy Carter unveiled a major push to wean us off oil (in response to two oil embargos in the 1970s) from the get-go. They’ve turned a belief it was more expensive than fossil fuels into an article of faith. The current mantra is solar, wind farms in particular drive up electric bills. A new study from MIT blows up that myth.

Why this matters right now is the midterms are upon us and Democrats are poised to retake control of the House. The Senate is less sure. However, while the odds were rather daunting earlier this year the GOP is battling for its life in some surprising places. “Holding serve”, especially in Georgia now seems likely although we have to keep an eye on Michigan which can be swingy for Democrats. But Democrats need to flip seats and a half dozen including Texas and Maine are within reach. If we gain control of both chambers of Congress it means legislation to expand wind and solar will make it to Trump’s desk. He’ll veto it of course, and hand Democrats a 2028 issue as the current cost of living includes a spike in the cost of people’s electricity bills.

That’s why this MIT study is going to be important. This isn’t some “Green Activist” group but a respected major university. I should add Trump, as a means of touting his own supposed intellect has often sung its praises because he had an uncle who was a full professor there. You can insert your own jokes about the increasingly bloated Trump resembling an orange amoeba and magically absorbing his uncle’s smarts but I want to focus on what MIT is saying.

I found this article from Slashgear fascinating and the big mainstream outlets should be talking about this. It’s up to place like here at Politizoom to spread the word and hopefully other sites will get in on the action enough that major outlets have no choice but to jump in. Let’s go back to what I led with. Conservatives keep claiming, sometimes ‘shouting’ that alternative energy isn’t cost effective, and even drives up electric bills. With each piece of news about the costs of implementing solar (and windmills) the conservative mantra of “WE TOLD YOU SO!!!!” spreads beyond the RWNJ echo chamber.

Of course it ignore what they all know which is that any new technology or major change upgrading it comes with start-up costs. However over time as the new methods, technology improve those costs disappear. That’s as true of making windmills and solar panels as anything else. Since we’re talking about electricity there’s also the cost of connecting solar (and wind) farms to the grid and on a large scale. With home solar there’s a twist that I’ll address in a minute. The point is that it takes serious investment by state and local governments to build things to the point where they become profitable. Corporate America long ago adopted forcing government to make the big early investments and then privatizing the eventual profits. That’s as true in the energy sector and public utilities as anywhere else in our economy.

I don’t have to tell you that electric bills have gone up. Once again conservatives can point to states where solar has taken hold and do their I told you so schtick claiming the jump in electric bills is in part because us “Woke liberals” forced it on everyone. Now, thanks to the MIT study we can call bullshit on that nonsense. The study evaluated how much energy bills actually went up for consumers after different types of renewable energy were connected to state energy grids. It found that large-scale solar farms (which the study called “utility-scale”) did not increase bills, and in fact decreased them slightly on average. The linked article begins by noting solar only makes up about eleven percent of electric in this country as of 2023 according to EIA, the U.S. Energy Information Administration data. (That’s an average of course and some states have more solar farms (or residents who have roof panels) than others.) It goes on to say:

One long-standing argument against increasing national solar capacity is that building large-scale solar farms will result in higher bills for customers, but a recent study from MIT’s CEEPR (Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research) proved that argument wasn’t backed up by the latest data.

The study evaluated how much energy bills actually went up for consumers after different types of renewable energy were connected to state energy grids. It found that large-scale solar farms (which the study called “utility-scale”) did not increase bills, and in fact decreased them slightly on average.

Researchers argued that the decrease in costs could be put down to the fact that solar farms don’t need to have fuel piped or transported to their location, which reduces their input costs to effectively zero. This helps reduce the total operation and maintenance costs that energy providers pay, which is subsequently passed on to customers in the form of lower bills.

Take note of that part saying large “utility scale” solar farms not only don’t increase energy bills, they actually slightly decrease them! If you read the linked article (you should) you’ll also learn that unsurprisingly states with the largest amount of solar farms shown the largest reduction in people’s electric bills.

I said I’d address rooftop solar and I need to because there’s a nuance involved that conservatives can and do exploit. Individual homes with their own solar array actually reduce their own electric bills entirely or almost so. Yet costs in areas where there’s significant home installations has in fact slightly increased. Why you ask. It’s common for the unused power home solar arrays generate to be sent back to the power company’s electrical grid. It’s the cost of “two way transmission” of power that drives up the cost both for homeowners during installation and to people who rely solely on the power company.

The power company still has to provide a power line to solar homes. They also receive power from them and the cost of two-way power transmission capability gets passed on to consumers! I’m not an electrical engineer, or to my dad’s dying regret any type of engineer but I smell a rat in all this. Running unused electricity from homes with solar all the way back to the grid seems wasteful.

To me it makes sense to create local, even neighborhood co-ops where that power can be collected and redistributed. Both to homes that buy in, or perhaps local parks or publicly owned areas where electric vehicle charging stations can be set up. That means less money for power transmission lines and that would have a ripple effect. Not as much of it would have to be manufactured and shipped in the first place. In other words utilities would save in more than one way which could bring down costs. As for feeding power into small public charging stations for electric vehicles it would incentivize more of them being used. Making EVs more practical to operate would have benefits beyond cost and convenience. Basically we’d get a LOT of benefits from something like this.

However it would almost certainly take an initial investment or set of them from the government to scale it up to make it work in a cost efficient manner. That’s where control of Congress comes in because it’s the kind of thing Democrats could pass. It might have to wait until 2028 to not only pass such enabling legislation but have a President who would sign it, which is why I’m writing about this now. So once again I say VOTE, and get others to do so!

One last thought. I chose the title picture for a reason. Had we listened to President Carter almost fifty years ago this all would have been done long ago. Middle eastern oil wouldn’t be causing wars and high prices which aren’t limited to the cost people pay at the gas pump as everyone now realizes. People forget Carter was a graduate of the Naval Academy, and was a part of Rickover’s team that created the nuclear powered Navy. He was headed towards a stellar career and probably his own Admiral’s flag one day. However his family’s business was in trouble so he resigned his commission and went home and saved it.

Once he was President, the vision Carter had of reducing reliance on oil for the Navy expanded to bigger things. Sadly even his own Party dismissed him as some rube of a peanut farmer from Georgia instead of giving serious consideration to his vision. The engineer part of him worked out a plan, and he made a point of proving it could work by installing solar panels on the White House. People didn’t listen then, and conservatives are, like they were with Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, Farm Subsidies and Crop Insurance, Rural Electrification and more recently Universal Health Care and Rural Internet vehemently opposed. It’s time to get this done because we now have credible information that solar WILL reduce people’s electricty costs.

Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula