Morning. It is Sunday, May 31st. I'm Ali Velshi. Search utility companies under news, and you're

going to find a familiar story playing out across the country. Report after report after report

of skyrocketing electric bills and mounting public anger with their

service providers. Out-of-control utility bills have become another aspect of the nation's

affordability crisis driven by an industry operating with too little accountability.

Retail electricity prices, the prices you pay, rose 7% in 2025 alone, which is part of a nearly 40% rise

since 2021. This makes this the fastest period of electricity price growth on record ever.

The average household's monthly electrical bill has climbed from roughly $121 in 2021 to $156 today.

That's a nearly 30% increase that well outpaces inflation.

Meanwhile, utility companies continue asking regulators to let them charge consumers even more money.

In just the first three months of this year, utility companies

sought approval for $9.4 billion in rate increases, which follows a record setting 2025 when

they requested $31 billion, which is more than double what they sought the year before.

According to the consumer provider group

Powerlines, quote, today nearly 80 million Americans are struggling to pay their utility bills

foregoing basic expenses like food, education, and health care to keep the lights on, end quote.

And in the words of my next guest, Matt Stoller, where's all the effing money going? For their part, the utilities

will point to extreme weather, aging infrastructure, the transition to cleaner energy, and now

the enormous power demand of data centers. And while all of that is actually real, the math

just doesn't add up. And it hasn't added up for years.

It doesn't add up because we've been paying more for years.

We've increased spending on the U.S. transmission system fivefold over the past two decades.

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