2026年2月4日 / 美国东部时间下午12:58 / CBS新闻
由于监管机构去年批准了数十项费率上调，数千万美国人正面临更高的水电费账单。
Powerlines的分析显示，2025年全国有43项费率上调获得监管机构批准，总涨幅达116亿美元。该专注于降低公用事业成本的非营利组织表示，绝大多数上调已生效，另有8项将在未来几个月实施。
据Powerlines统计，全美共有5600万美国人将面临更高的水电费，这在能源成本本已成为消费者主要困扰之际，又给他们带来了新的经济压力。公用事业公司上调费率，是为了支付修复和更换老化基础设施的费用，这些费用与极端天气事件、燃料价格波动以及主要由数据中心推动的电力需求增长有关。
Powerlines称，消费者每月水电费中包含了费率上调成本以及公用事业公司的运营和基础设施资本成本。
“我们称之为电力的新政治，电力已成为新的’鸡蛋’，”Powerlines执行董事查尔斯·华（Charles Hua）在上周三的新闻发布会上表示，他将2024-2025年飙升的鸡蛋价格作为消费者对食品成本不满的焦点进行类比。
哪些地区费率上涨最显著？
Powerlines的数据显示，尽管费率上调的影响遍布全国，但南方地区首当其冲。该地区的公用事业公司提出了13项费率上调请求，监管机构批准的总涨幅达84亿美元。
其中包括佛罗里达电力与照明公司（Florida Power & Light）备受争议的费率上调计划，该计划将在未来几年迫使佛罗里达人额外支付数十亿美元的公用事业费用。由于这项近100亿美元的提案规模巨大，相关争议备受关注。
Powerlines统计，2025年共有83项费率上调申请，其中38项仍在等待审批，2项被驳回。分析发现，如果这些待批申请获得通过，将有超过8000万美国人面临更高的水电费。
居高不下的能源成本
新一轮费率上调之际，美国人已深受能源成本飙升之苦。LendingTree对美国人口普查局家庭脉搏调查数据的分析显示，约三分之一的美国人在2024年为支付能源账单不得不削减一项基本开支。
进步智库The Century Foundation和倡导组织Protect Borrowers去年发布的数据显示，截至2025年7月，美国人平均每月支付约250美元的公用事业费用。
华表示，费率上调的原因可能因地区而异。
“在加利福尼亚州，野火是迄今为止最大的驱动因素，”华上周表示。”在佐治亚州，极端天气事件或沃格特尔核电站（Vogtle nuclear plant）的建设，是民众最终感受到的水电费上涨的主要原因。”
华指出，对电力需求旺盛的数据中心也是一个推手，但这些设施对特定用户账单的影响因地区而异。
“这很大程度上取决于地理位置、电力市场结构、州级公用事业监管模式，以及公共事业委员会在该管辖区是否采取行动，”他解释道。
为缓解消费者担忧，白宫和国会呼吁大型科技公司承担新建人工智能工厂的成本，Meta和谷歌等公司已承诺承担相关费用。
天然气和电力价格现状
公用事业费用上涨可能继续困扰美国人，尤其是电力价格预计将持续上涨。
美国能源信息署（EIA）预测，2026年居民电价将上涨近4%。由于电价因州而异，具体费用取决于居住地区。
Powerlines数据显示，2024年美国人平均在电费上支出1833美元。该非营利组织表示，近年来批发电价因电气化、制造业和数据中心需求增长而大幅上涨。
美国能源信息署预测，居民天然气价格未来几年可能小幅下降，或能带来一定缓解。
专家告诉CBS新闻，尽管天然气整体价格未来几年预计会下降，但仍可能保持波动。以最近的冬季风暴为例，全球天然气需求激增导致价格上涨。1月27日，天然气期货价格收于近7美元/百万英热单位（MMBtu），为2022年12月以来最高水平。
标准普尔全球能源公司美洲天然气研究主管兼执行董事马修·帕尔默（Matthew Palmer）在给CBS新闻的电子邮件中表示：”供暖需求显著增加，电力需求也大幅上升，这使得天然气发电在一年中的这个时候达到了非常高的水平。”
专家指出，天气事件可能推高天然气需求，但短期内不太可能影响水电费。
能源研究公司Wood Mackenzie的研究主管埃里克·麦圭尔（Eric McGuire）告诉CBS新闻：”短期价格飙升不太可能影响个人水电费，因为公用事业公司通常会提前几个月对冲大部分消耗的天然气。不过，如果价格持续高位或波动加剧，未来的支付成本可能会受到影响。”
编辑：艾米·皮基（Aimee Picchi）
相关内容：
- 水电费账单
取暖成本飙升时如何节省能源费用
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Millions of Americans face higher utility bills as dozens of rate hikes take effect
February 4, 2026 / 12:58 PM EST / CBS News
Tens of millions of Americans are facing higher utility bills after regulators approved dozens of rate hikes last year.
Regulators green-lit 43 rate hikes across the country in 2025, totaling $11.6 billion in increases, according to an analysis by Powerlines. The nonprofit, which is focused on lowering utility costs, said the vast majority of hikes have already gone into effect, while eight are slated to go live in the coming months.
All told, 56 million Americans will see higher utility bills, according to Powerlines, adding fresh financial pressure on consumers at a time when energy costs are already a major headache. Utilities are hiking their rates to pay for repairing and replacing ailing infrastructure, costs linked to extreme weather events, volatile fuel prices and the increase in electricity demand, driven largely by data centers.
Consumers absorb the cost of rate hikes, as well as utilities’ operational and capital infrastructure costs, in their monthly utility bills, according to Powerlines.
“We’re calling this the new politics of electricity, where electricity is the new eggs,” said Charles Hua, the executive director of Powerlines, during a media briefing last Wednesday, referring to the soaring price of eggs in 2024 and 2025 that became a focal point of consumer frustration over grocery costs.
Where are rates rising?
While the impact of the rate hikes is scattered across all corners of the country, the South is bearing the brunt, data from Powerlines shows. Utilities in the region requested 13 rate hikes, with regulators approving increases totaling $8.4 billion.
That includes a highly contested rate hike by the utility company Florida Power & Light, which will force Floridians to pay billions of additional dollars in utility costs in the coming years. The battle over the rate hike request was closely watched given the sheer scale of the nearly $10 billion proposal.
Powerlines tabulated a total of 83 rate requests in 2025, 38 of which are still pending and two of which were rejected. If the pending requests are approved, more than 80 million Americans could be facing higher utility bills, the analysis found.
Sky-high costs
The new round of rate hikes comes at a time when Americans are already feeling weighed down by soaring energy costs. Around one in three Americans said they had to forgo a basic expense in 2024 to afford their energy bills, according to a LendingTree analysis of U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey data.
As of July 2025, Americans paid about $250 a month on average for their utilities, data released last year from The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, and advocacy group Protect Borrowers shows.
The reason for a rate hike will likely depend on where you live, Hua said.
“In California, wildfires have been by far the biggest driver,”Hua said last week. “In Georgia, things like extreme weather events, or the Vogtle nuclear plant, have been the biggest driver of the utility bill increases that people ultimately have felt.”
Power-hungry data centers are another culprit, although how much these facilities will impact a given customer’s utility bill is nuanced, according to Hua.
“It differs a lot based on the geography, electricity market structure, as well as the state utility regulatory paradigm, and what actions the public utility commission is or isn’t taking in that jurisdiction,” he said.
To assuage consumer concerns, the White House and Congress have called on big tech companies to foot the bill on new artificial intelligence plants, with some, like Meta and Google, already offering commitments to absorb the costs.
State of natural gas and electricity prices
Higher utility bills may continue to be a pain point for Americans, especially as electricity prices are expected to continue to rise.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts residential electricity prices will rise nearly 4% in 2026. Because electricity rates vary by state, prices vary depending on where you live.
Americans spent $1,833 on average on their electricity bills in 2024, according to Powerlines. The nonprofit said wholesale electricity prices have surged in recent years due to rising demand from electrification, manufacturing and data centers.
Residential natural gas prices are expected to dip in the coming years, an EIA projection shows, potentially offering some relief.
While the price of natural gas overall is expected to fall in the next several years, it will likely remain volatile, experts told CBS News. Take the recent winter storm blitz, when global natural gas prices rose due to a surge in demand. Natural gas futures settled at nearly $7 per MMBtu (British thermal unit) on Jan. 27, the highest level since December 2022.
“Heating demand was significantly higher, and electricity demand increased significantly, which increased natural gas-fired generation to a very high level for this time of year,” Matthew Palmer, executive director and head of Americas gas research at S&P Global Energy, told CBS News in an email.
Weather events can push up natural gas demand, but they aren’t likely to impact utility bills in the near term, experts said.
“Short-term spikes are unlikely to impact individuals’ utility bills since much of what they consume is hedged out months ahead of time by utilities,” Eric McGuire, director of research at Wood Mackenzie, an energy research company, told CBS News. “That being said, if prices remain high or we see continued volatility, it could impact the prices they pay in the future.”
Edited by Aimee Picchi
In:
- Utility Bills
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