Major pain at the plug

Joe energy costs up

Energy prices, particularly the cost of electricity, have skyrocketed since President Biden took office, outpacing inflation and putting a dent in Americans’ wallets.

Since January 2021, electricity prices have soared 29.4% — 50% more than overall inflation — rising 13 times faster than the previous seven years, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Meanwhile, in those seven years before Biden took office, electricity prices rose just 5%.

News of the astronomical increase in electricity came in the wake of March’s Consumer Price Index, which showed US inflation rose 3.5% in March.

Wednesday’s data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that on a monthly basis, price growth rose 0.4%, primarily driven by shelter and gasoline, which contributed to more than half of the advance.

“There is no improvement here, we’re moving in the wrong direction,” Bankrate analyst Greg McBride, told Fox Business.

“The usual trouble spots persist — shelter, motor vehicle insurance, maintenance, and repairs, service costs. Add electricity to that list, up 0.9% in March and 5% over the past year.”

Fox Business reported that in March the overall cost of energy was a whopping 36.9% higher than in January 2021.

From January 2021 to this month, electricity prices rose from $0.14 per kilowatt-hour to $0.17 — a 28% boost, according to the report.

And gasoline prices, while down from their 2022 peak, are still 52.1% higher today than when Biden took the White House, Fox Business reported.

Meanwhile, Biden, through one of his major legislative achievements — the Inflation Reduction Act — has allocated billions of dollars into clean energy alternatives. The 730-page law committed $369 billion to environmental projects, including grants to renewable energy companies and tax breaks for consumers.

“In that law, Joe Biden and his supporters celebrated the passage of the largest green energy slush fund in history and all it is delivering are higher prices across the board,” Daniel Turner, founder and executive director for Power the Future, told Fox Business.