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RAINELLE, W.Va. — <\/span>Every month, Rebecca Michalski takes a deep breath before opening her electric bill. She lives on a fixed income, and heating her small house this winter has been staggering: Her February charge was $940.08 \u2014 more than her check.<\/p>\n It makes no sense. She turns the lights off during the day and only burns one lamp with an energy-efficient bulb in the living room at night, but she keeps falling further behind on payments. In desperation, she took out a loan after getting a cut-off notice during an extended arctic blast that kept the state\u2019s heaters cranking when temperatures regularly dipped below zero. <\/p>\n \u201cEvery time you see that power bill, you\u2019re just sick,\u201d Michalski said, rifling through a stack of statements totaling thousands of dollars. \u201cI already know before I open it. I just dread seeing how much.\u201d <\/p>\n She\u2019s taken to social media, demanding answers alongside thousands of other West Virginians who have been posting screenshots of their monthly charges. They are angry and perplexed over soaring utility costs that are surpassing rents and mortgages in one of the most energy-rich, yet poorest, corners of America, where some families have been forced to choose between paying for food or heat.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump, as part of his campaign pitch to \u201cmake America affordable again,\u201d promised to cut Americans\u2019 electricity bills by half<\/a> during his first year to 18 months in the White House. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd if it doesn\u2019t work out, you\u2019ll say, \u2018Oh well, I voted for him, I still got them down a lot,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cYou will never have had energy so low as you will under a certain gentleman known as Donald J. Trump.\u201d <\/p>\n It hasn\u2019t worked out. <\/p>\n Instead, electricity increased 4.8% in February nationwide and piped natural gas prices rose 10.9%, both compared with a year earlier, according to the Labor Department\u2019s Consumer Price Index. That surpassed inflation even before the attacks on Iran by the U.S. and Israel sent energy costs ballooning. <\/p>\n It\u2019s becoming an increasingly aggravating issue for some voters. Rising electricity bills emerged as a campaign issue in recent elections, including during gubernatorial races won by Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia<\/a>. Cost concerns are expected to surface during midterms this fall, and an analysis by the nonprofit PowerLines found residents are not likely to get a break any time soon because new gas and electricity rate hike requests could affect more than 80 million Americans. An AP-NORC poll conducted in March<\/a> also found 35% of U.S. adults were \u201cextremely\u201d or \u201cvery\u201d concerned about being able to afford electricity in the next few months.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s breaking me. And there\u2019s nothing that can be done for it, unless the president does something,\u201d Michalski said about her skyrocketing power bills, adding she no longer supports Trump. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t see him doing it. He\u2019s had plenty of time.\u201d<\/p>\n Increased demand, extreme weather and events, upgrading and maintaining aging infrastructure and rising natural gas prices are pushing electricity bills higher. Rising energy costs \u2014 including gas pump sticker shock now topping an average $4 per gallon nationally<\/a> \u2014 could further be exacerbated by the war in Iran along with the Trump administration\u2019s push to export higher volumes of liquefied natural gas<\/a> \u2014 which, in turn, depletes domestic supply. Ratepayers are also wary as more power-gobbling data centers for artificial intelligence and cloud computing are being built or warmly embraced by politicians in places like West Virginia \u2014 where residents deep in Trump country have gone from having the cheapest electricity rate nationwide in 2005, to experiencing one of the fastest increases in the country, far outpacing the national average, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. <\/p>\n All in a place where people are living atop vast deposits of coal, oil and gas. <\/p>\n Coal remains king here, but it wears a pricey crown. The state is an outlier nationwide because of its stubborn resistance to adopting cleaner, cheaper sources of energy, such as nuclear power, natural gas \u2014 even though it\u2019s one of the nation\u2019s top producers \u2014 and renewables like wind and solar. Instead, West Virginia clings to aging coal-fired electric plants more than anywhere else in the country \u2014 about 87% of all production. Its supermajority Republican-led government \u2014 there are only 11 Democrats in the House and Senate \u2014 has doubled down on this reliance, blaming past Democratic administrations for a war on coal fueled by increased federal regulations and restrictions, while Trump poses for photo ops with coal miners at the White House and regularly touts \u201cbeautiful, clean coal.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cLowering electricity prices is a top priority for President Trump,\u201d said White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers, blaming former President Joe Biden for the problem. \u201cHe is aggressively unleashing reliable energy sources like coal and natural gas.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has forced unprofitable coal-powered plants to remain open, rolled back pollution standards for them and provided hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to improve them. He\u2019s also streamlined permitting and regulations to push for mining expansion when coal mines have been shutting down in the state, including several operations this year that eliminated more than 700 jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re not 100% in on coal, then you\u2019re a traitor. \u2026 It\u2019s like a measure of patriotism,\u201d said Jamie Van Nostrand, policy director at the nonprofit Future of Heat Initiative and a former West Virginia University professor who wrote a book about the state\u2019s reliance on coal energy. \u201cI think if you went to the average West Virginian and said, \u2018Yeah, we understand you want to support the coal industry, but do you want to support it to the extent that you\u2019re OK paying twice as much as you should be for electricity?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n The state\u2019s average household electricity rate per kilowatt-hour has surged 73%, natural gas has increased 51% per 1,000 cubic feet and water has risen 45% per 1,000 gallons from 2015 to 2025, according to West Virginia\u2019s Public Service Commission, a three-member panel. It includes a former power company lobbyist and the former head of the state coal association \u2014 appointed by the governor and charged with approving rate hikes.<\/p>\n Even though monthly bills remain higher in other states, salaries in West Virginia have simply not kept pace \u2014 it\u2019s the only place in the country where the median inflation-adjusted household income was lower in 2023 than it was in 1970, according to the Urban Institute. That means residents are seeing larger chunks of their paychecks going to utilities compared to people in other places.<\/p>\n Michalski, who\u2019s disabled and uses a walker to get around, said she tries not to run anything in her house that can suck electricity, including her air conditioning in summer. But she simply can\u2019t turn off the heater. During the past year, her statements totaled over $5,000. She asked family for help paying the bill this winter, but said she\u2019s now out of options. <\/p>\n She knows what\u2019s next. <\/p>\n \u201cThey come and cut off your power. Then you\u2019re sitting in the dark. And I see that happening,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I think for a lot of other people, it\u2019s gonna happen too.\u201d<\/p>\n Isolated by its beautiful, rugged mountains, West Virginia sits entirely within Appalachia and has long been listed at the bottom of a laundry list of failings, including poor health and a lack of education. Many residents from rural areas have lived on the same land for generations, watching a cycle of outside companies profit from extracting the state\u2019s resources \u2014 from timber to coal and oil and gas \u2014 only to pollute and abandon communities afterward. Its people are known for being fiercely independent and proud despite their hardships, including a lack of clean drinking water that has persisted for decades in some areas, forcing residents in the southern coal fields to ferry jugs to and from roadside springs or abandoned mines while spending up to $250 a month for bottled water to cook with and drink. They also pay for public water piped into their homes that often runs black, yellow and brown. <\/p>\n Some, including those living in scenic areas where tourism is a major revenue driver, are protesting Big Tech companies rushing to build enormous data centers, fearing they could lead to the next cycle of outsiders taking advantage of the state\u2019s resources. They have been loud over a lack of public input and transparency around plans to build the complexes, questioning noise pollution, huge water consumption and the effect on ratepayers\u2019 electricity prices. <\/p>\n \u201cWe just roll back regulations and we keep being promised that deregulating and privatizing our systems is gonna fix everything, and it never does,\u201d said Caitlin Ware, a pastor who advocates for clean water in southern West Virginia \u2014 her thoughts briefly interrupted as the electricity abruptly went off in her Sandyville United Methodist Church. \u201cIt only makes the rich richer, and it only puts us in a worse situation.\u201d<\/p>\n In February, Gov. Patrick Morrisey proudly announced plans to build a data center on nearly 550 acres in Berkeley County.<\/p>\n \u201cThis $4 billion investment is a historic win that proves West Virginia can compete at the highest level for the global tech economy,\u201d he said in a statement. It did not explain where the water or electricity would come from to run the 600 megawatt, 1.9 million square foot facility.<\/p>\n Morrisey\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n Skyrocketing electricity costs and the growth of data centers, which can use enough power to run 100,000 homes, faced voter backlash in Georgia last fall where Democrats ousted two Republicans on the state\u2019s utility regulatory commission<\/a> for the first time in nearly two decades. Trump recently tried to ease Americans\u2019 concerns by announcing a \u201cratepayer protection\u201d pledge at the White House with Big Tech companies promising to bear the cost and produce their own energy, though it\u2019s not clear how that would be enforced.<\/p>\n The reasons behind nationwide utility price hikes are complex and vary among regions. They include adding new transmission, distribution lines and power poles; increased brutal high and low temperatures; extreme weather events such as hurricanes and wildfires; and volatility in fuel costs such as surging gas prices during the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n These all play a huge role in rising bills that have left some 80 million Americans struggling to pay their monthly gas and electric bills, said Charles Hua, founder of consumer advocacy organization PowerLines that found investor-owned gas and electric utility companies asked for nearly $31 billion in increases last year nationwide, double the amount requested a year earlier. He said utility costs have become the new affordability issue akin to soaring egg prices that previously enraged consumers, making it a possible player in this fall\u2019s elections to control Congress. <\/p>\n \u201cElectric bills have gone up 40% over the last five years,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is likely to continue to rise. This is definitely something that the Trump administration and President Trump are very concerned about.\u201d<\/p>\n In West Virginia, all 55 counties voted for Trump in 2024. But it was a Democratic stronghold for decades prior to the switch when coal mines were the lifeblood, and unions were virtually unbreakable. The state has struggled immensely under both parties: It has experienced a major brain drain, a devastating opioid epidemic, a growing elderly population and its coveted coal industry jobs have dried up with nothing to replace them. That leaves people who work minimum wage jobs, those on fixed incomes and even college-educated middle-class families with two paychecks being pushed to the breaking point with affordability issues, including rising car insurance, grocery bills, health care and housing.<\/p>\n Ashley Nicole Dixon of Danese works as a manager at a Dollar General store and has a teenage daughter at home and another in college. She flipped through bills on her phone totaling more than $5,000 charged last year for electricity in her house that\u2019s just over 1,000 square feet, even though her air conditioner didn\u2019t work last summer. She voted for Trump, but said she\u2019s done with him because he and other Republican politicians in West Virginia\u2019s Capitol aren\u2019t looking out for her interests. <\/p>\n \u201cI love West Virginia because it\u2019s beautiful. But anymore, it\u2019s just a sham from the local government all the way up to Charleston,\u201d she said, adding she believes the state\u2019s Public Service Commission should be elected, and Trump should send her a check since he promised to cut electricity bills in half.<\/p>\n \u201cI have no choice. It has to be paid,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what makes me sick because now I\u2019m going to have to go \u2026 take more money out of my savings account just to keep the lights on.\u201d<\/p>\n The coldest winter months were the hardest. Some people confined themselves to one room with small space heaters or used generators when they got behind on their electricity bills and were disconnected. Others were forced to choose between food, medicine and warmth, with some turning their thermostats down to 60 degrees and bundling up or coming out of retirement to take part-time jobs. <\/p>\n For some, the spiral began in November when their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits were put on hold due to the federal government shutdown. United Way\u2019s Central West Virginia helpline saw more than a 1,300% increase during that time, and calls for help paying utilities were second only to housing last year. <\/p>\n More than one in three West Virginia households is considered energy burdened, spending more than 6% of their income on electricity and other fuel costs. Of those, about 20% are low-income residents who shoulder some of the highest energy costs in the state. <\/p>\n Last year, Trump fired<\/a> the staff of a federal program that assists millions of low-income Americans with heating bills in the winter and proposed eliminating all of its funding in his budget \u2014 a move repeated this year. Congress allocated money for it, but billions of dollars were delayed due to the shutdown. However, many West Virginians falling behind on bills are not eligible to apply because they make just a little too much money. <\/p>\n Jennifer Brown of Kingwood lands in that category. She\u2019s employed at West Virginia\u2019s federally funded Head Start program for low-income children and her husband is a postal worker. They have four kids and during the winter months, their combined utilities can climb to $1,000 a month, eclipsing their $798 mortgage. They were on a payment plan for their gas this winter after receiving a shut-off notice, and she said they were still paying off a water bill from their previous home. <\/p>\n \u201cEvery month we get our utility bills, I\u2019m so angry. I\u2019m like, \u2018Why is this so high?\u2019\u201d she said, adding it\u2019s not unusual to pay $200 to $300 for electricity and the same for water, sewage and garbage combined every month. \u201cAnd we can\u2019t figure it out. Nothing seems to be wrong \u2026 and we\u2019re not wasteful.\u201d <\/p>\n Bills introduced that would have temporarily frozen electricity rates in West Virginia or helped those who are most vulnerable went nowhere this year in the state legislature even though increased energy costs are often passed on to ratepayers. The Public Service Commission has approved a flurry of rate hikes in recent years as private utilities grapple with maintaining profits while improving infrastructure in a mountainous, sparsely populated state. <\/p>\n It\u2019s been a particularly tough burden for some small businesses to carry. In the western town of Ravenswood, just across the river from Ohio, some shop owners were forced to shut down this winter because they couldn\u2019t pay their electric bills.<\/p>\n Heather Santee said the power at her bakery was abruptly terminated just ahead of Valentine\u2019s Day. She was behind on her bill, but said she would have been able to pay the necessary chunk of the $4,000 she owed if she could have stayed open long enough to fulfill the holiday orders. Instead, the shut-off forced her out, leaving the tenants living in apartments upstairs without heat too. <\/p>\n \u201cOnce I started getting those high electric bills in the winter, I was like, \u2018This will be what closes me down,\u2019\u201d she said, adding the bakery was her dream and the loss has her thinking maybe it would be better to just leave the state altogether. \u201cWest Virginia is holding back a lot of people because they are allowing these bills to be so high.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s not alone. Just a couple blocks down the street, Anthony Crihfield Jones packed up his overstock retail shop, JCD Bargain and Trade, moving inventory to another warehouse because he can no longer afford to pay thousands of dollars in electricity charges for his home and businesses. <\/p>\n Even though he still supports Trump, after leaving the Democrats to vote Republican, he\u2019s becoming increasingly concerned that neither party cares about struggling people in America. <\/p>\n \u201cAll I heard was \u2026 \u2018Drill, baby, drill,\u2019\u201d he said, repeating Trump\u2019s popular catch phrase to encourage domestic energy production. \u201cOK. Well, they\u2019re drillin\u2019. Why\u2019s my bill the same?\u201d <\/p>\n \u2014-<\/p>\n Contact AP\u2019s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org<\/a> or https:\/\/www.ap.org\/tips\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n