Energy costs are landing on American households and businesses in different ways: gasoline is a visible cost at the pump, electricity and natural gas show up in household utility bills, and diesel is an operating expense for freight and some small businesses. Those pressures are politically salient, but polls show concern and hardship—not that energy prices alone determine votes or that a particular policy caused a particular price change.
How the three costs reach household budgets
| Energy cost | Where people encounter it | What the available evidence measures |
|---|---|---|
| Gasoline | Transportation, with prices visible whenever drivers fill up | Gallup asked Americans about financial hardship and changes to driving and vacation plans; other surveys asked voters how concerned they were about gas prices. |
| Electricity and natural gas | Household utility bills, which vary by region | Pew reported national residential price changes from 2021 to 2025 and surveyed adults about whether home energy costs had risen. |
| Diesel | Freight and the operating costs of diesel-using businesses | An Associated Press report included one Michigan business owner’s account, but the available evidence does not establish a national diesel-price trend paired with voter attitudes. |
Why rising home energy costs do not tell the whole story
National increases, with different results by fuel and state
In a survey fielded March 16–22, 2026, 75% of U.S. adults told Pew Research Center that their home energy costs had gone up in recent years. Separately, Pew’s comparison using U.S. Energy Information Administration data found that residential electricity prices rose 27% nationally from 2021 to 2025, while residential natural gas prices rose 26% over the same period. Those are changes in prices, not a claim that every household’s bill rose by those amounts.
The national figures conceal substantial regional variation. Seven Northeastern states were among the 15 states with the largest electricity-price increases from 2021 to 2025, according to Pew’s analysis of EIA data. A national average therefore cannot say how much an individual household’s utility costs changed.
An electricity bill reflects more than fuel prices
EIA explains that retail electricity prices include the costs of generation, transmission and delivery, as well as taxes and fees. The price a customer pays is not simply a readout of the price of one fuel. EIA reported in 2025 that retail electricity prices had risen faster than inflation since 2022 and forecast further increases through 2026. That forecast, published in May 2025, is a projection—not a final account of what happened in 2026.
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EIA also described a different pattern for some fuels more closely tied to crude oil: gasoline and heating-oil prices had declined after 2022 before later market disruptions. That contrast helps explain why electricity and transportation costs need not move together. It does not establish that one price caused the other to rise or fall.
How gasoline costs are changing household decisions
Gasoline costs are not just an abstract concern in surveys. In Gallup’s survey of Americans fielded June 1–15, 2026, two-thirds said fuel costs had caused financial hardship for their household. In the same survey, 57% said gas prices had caused them to drive less, and 46% said they had altered summer vacation plans.
These are respondents’ reports of hardship and behavior, not a measure of the price paid by every driver or a count of how many miles Americans drove. They do show how a cost encountered during routine travel can lead people to make immediate trade-offs.
What voters say about energy costs
Concern was high in two 2026 surveys, but the results describe different populations and questions. In an Ipsos/PowerLines poll fielded March 14–16, 2026, 77% of utility bill payers were concerned that their gas and electricity bills would increase that year. In a separate Searchlight Institute/Tavern Research poll fielded April 27–May 1, 2026, 79% of likely voters were at least somewhat concerned about rising gas prices. These percentages should not be treated as directly comparable: one survey asked utility bill payers about bills, while the other asked likely voters about gas prices.
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →An Associated Press report in September 2026 described a Fox News poll in which 61% of voters called gas prices a major problem for their household, up from 48% two years earlier. Republican strategist Chris Wilson told the AP, “Gas prices matter because they’re one of the few economic indicators voters experience and see in real time.” That visibility helps make pump prices politically potent, but a poll finding does not show how much a price concern will affect any one person’s vote.
Why price concern is a political pressure point, not a vote prediction
In an AP-NORC poll fielded September 24–28, 2026, 17% of adults approved of the administration’s handling of the cost of living, while 65% blamed its policies more than external factors for persistently high costs. Those findings are about the broader cost of living. They do not isolate energy prices as the reason for a respondent’s view or establish that energy costs caused a vote choice.
Energy concerns also do not settle the debate over what caused higher household costs or what the response should be. Among respondents who said their home energy costs had risen, Pew found that people often attributed increases to utility companies seeking profits, data-center electricity use and grid upgrades. Those are public perceptions, not independent findings that any one factor caused a particular household’s price increase. Pew’s 2026 survey on energy sources and policy also found partisan differences in preferences for fossil fuels versus renewable energy.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the diesel evidence can—and cannot—show
Diesel can matter to businesses that use it directly and to freight operations, but the figures above do not provide a national diesel series that can be matched with voter attitudes. The Associated Press reported one Michigan small-business owner’s account of paying $6.79 per gallon for diesel for a machine used in his cleaning business. That example illustrates how a fuel cost can affect a particular operator; it is not a national average or evidence of the typical business’s expense.
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