President Trump spent much of the past two years promising to bring down energy prices.<\/p>\n
Instead, his war with Iran, as well as other policies, drove up the cost of gasoline, diesel and electricity. At the same time his administration worked to thwart efforts to fight climate change, blocking renewable energy investments that could have reduced the country\u2019s reliance on fossil fuels or brought down costs.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, voters\u2019 frustration with soaring energy prices helped propel Democrats to a blowout, with Republicans losing control of the House<\/a> and the Senate<\/a>, as well as the governorships of many historically conservative states.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s quite clear that energy and energy affordability in particular played a big role in the electorate\u2019s decision-making last night,\u201d said Hasan Nazar, head of policy at Crux, a clean energy finance company.<\/p>\n Many Americans said concerns about the cost of gas and electricity informed their voting choices, according to polling from The Associated Press<\/a>. Gasoline prices across the country were at a record high for an Election Day, according to AAA<\/a>.<\/p>\n No single action had a bigger effect on energy costs than Mr. Trump\u2019s decision to go to war with Iran. With the Strait of Hormuz closed and global flows of oil disrupted, gasoline prices in the United States have jumped more than 40 percent since the war began. Diesel prices are up nearly 70 percent.<\/p>\n Catherine Wolfram, a professor of energy economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s Sloan School of Management, said that launching the war was among the worst decisions Mr. Trump could have made if he was trying to bring down energy costs. \u201cIt\u2019s Econ 101 that invading Iran when they control the Strait of Hormuz is going to impact gas prices,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Daniel Raimi, a fellow at Resources for the Future, a nonprofit research institute, noted that \u201cusually presidents have very little sway over global oil prices, but that was not the case this time.\u201d The Iran war, he said, not only increased fuel prices but also costs for fertilizer<\/a> \u201cand a whole host of commodities.\u201d<\/p>\n Rising gasoline costs contributed to voter discontent over inflation. A gas station in Philadelphia in July.Credit…Hannah Beier for The New York Times<\/p>\n Beyond the war in Iran, the Trump administration has taken a sweeping approach to reshaping the nation\u2019s energy policy, including actions that may have increased costs for consumers.<\/p>\n At a time when electricity demand and prices are soaring because of the data center boom, the administration has blocked the construction of offshore wind farms, despite pleas from governors to allow the projects to get built. It also mandated that coal-burning power plans stay online, even though utilities said that doing so would raise prices for their customers.<\/p>\n Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said on Wednesday that higher energy costs were a factor with voters. \u201cSome of the time he talked about extraneous things that were ridiculous, but much of the time he implemented things that raised their costs: on electricity, on health care, on goods,\u201d he said<\/a>, referring to Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n If there was one energy-related issue beyond Iran that broke through, Mr. Raimi said, it was likely higher electricity prices, which many Americans blame on the proliferation of data centers. \u201cVoters are certainly unhappy about higher electricity bills, but the larger driver for those higher prices is increased demand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While data centers have become deeply unpopular with voters, Mr. Trump and his administration have offered stalwart support for the industry and dismissed voters\u2019 concerns about them.<\/p>\n Other issues, like keeping coal plants open or blocking wind farms, he said, were less important in the voting booth because their effect on prices would be marginal.<\/p>\n Some of the Democrats who won seized on energy affordability as part of their campaigns. Roy Cooper, who flipped a Republican senate seat in North Carolina, said at a campaign stop that the war in Iran was \u201cdriving the cost of gas through the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n James Talarico, who became the first Democrat to win a senate race in Texas in decades, has called for suspending the federal gas tax<\/a> and diesel tax.<\/p>\n