Surging Power Prices Unmask US Vulnerabilities

Despite a ~70% natural gas cost advantage and a robust renewables build, the US electricity CPI has climbed since January 2020 to nearly parallel that of Europe—a stark warning to policymakers that demands attention.
Intermittent wind and solar sources boast low effective load-carrying capacities, creating reliability shortfalls and grid stress and requiring urgent capacity market reforms to secure resilient power supply systems.
US combined-cycle gas capacity additions slowed to their lowest level in over two decades in 2024, highlighting how policy flip-flops and investment uncertainty can even hinder essential, feasible supply growth options.
Ongoing IRA incentives and looming “Big, Beautiful Bill” rollbacks create a US policy tug-of-war, risking clean energy projects and underscoring the need for stable, long-term frameworks to attract growth investment.
Otherwise, US domestic lithium extraction ambitions in Arkansas are on the rise; petrochemicals are driving global oil demand forecasts; and EU circular plastic mandate proposals threaten to reshape automotive content.

Companies Mentioned: Bloom Energy, Chevron, Celanese, Covestro, Dacia, Dow, ExxonMobil, Green Dot, Ineos, Issaquena Green Power, LANXESS, Lazard, LyondellBasell, Methanex, Orlen, PureCycle, Rio Tinto, SABIC, Saltwerx, Standard Lithium, Stegra, Sunnova, TotalEnergies, Westlake, X-Energy, Yara
Products Mentioned: Aluminum, Ammonia, Batteries, Biofuel, Chlor-Alkali, Copper, Crude Oil, Electricity, Ethane, Ethanol, HDPE, Hydrogen, LDPE, Lithium, LNG, LPG, Methanol, Natural Gas, NGL, Naphtha, PET, Polypropylene, Polystyrene, Propane, Propylene, PVC, Recycled Plastics, Solar, Steel, Urea, Wind

Exhibit 1: US electricity CPI has outpaced overall CPI and now nearly matches Europe’s growth since January 2020.