Brattle Principals Interviewed by Business Insider on Rising Electricity Bills in the US
Principals Dr. Sam Newell and Ryan Hledik are featured in a recent Business Insider explainer video on the factors driving rising electricity bills in the US and how new technology and reforms can help mitigate these costs.
In the video, Dr. Newell commented on the effects large amounts of renewable resources have on wholesale electricity markets: “When you add a low-cost resource to a system, it lowers prices and contributes to reliability. Period.” The segment also references an October 2025 Berkeley Lab report that Brattle experts contributed to, which found no significant correlation between higher prices and the deployment of utility-scale solar and wind.
According to that report, utility spending on generation has decreased over the past five years, while spending on categories such as transmission and distribution has increased during the same period. Mr. Hledik noted, “The need to modernize the grid, or even just maintain the grid, has gotten more expensive, and that has been a pretty significant driver of rate increases.”
The full video, “What’s behind rising electricity bills in the US?,” can be found on the Business Insider website below.
