You’re Being Lied To About Energy Costs
As electricity bills surge across the United States, a slew of finger-pointing has ensued. Politicians are attributing these rising costs to renewable energy sources and the burgeoning demand from data centers and artificial intelligence. But is this narrative oversimplifying a complex issue? In a revealing new video, Business Insider producer Elizabeth McCauley delves into the heart of the matter, interviewing experts and analyzing the factors driving up energy prices.
At the outset, the video examines whether renewable energy is indeed responsible for escalating electricity costs. Contrary to popular belief, emerging research suggests that while renewables may have some initial setup costs, they often provide long-term savings and price stability. Delays in implementing these cleaner energy sources, however, can hinder potential benefits, contributing to an unreliable energy supply that may compound cost issues.
One significant factor discussed is the aging infrastructure of the nation’s power grid. Infrastructure delays and inefficiencies have left many areas vulnerable to energy shortages and rising costs. The video further contextualizes this by highlighting how surges in electricity demand, driven in part by extreme weather conditions and the booming use of electric vehicles, are placing unprecedented stress on the grid. Such conditions are particularly pronounced in states like Texas, where fluctuations in energy prices have become commonplace.
Beyond renewable energy and grid limitations, the video also grapples with the burgeoning demand from data centers and AI technologies. While these sectors have been pegged as culprits for increased energy consumption, McCauley uncovers that their impact may have been overstated. Issues related to natural gas prices and the continued operation of aging fossil-fuel-powered plants also play a critical role, yet they often receive less scrutiny in the discourse about rising electricity costs.
Finally, the video scrutinizes the role of for-profit utility companies, questioning whether their profit-driven motives exacerbate the issue. It invites viewers to consider if the current framework is sustainable or if a reevaluation of how utilities operate and allocate resources is necessary for the future.
In summary, “You’re Being Lied To About Energy Costs” aims to clarify the multifaceted nature of rising electricity bills by offering nuanced insights and expert commentary, ultimately challenging viewers to reconsider widely held beliefs. As the conversation around energy costs evolves, understanding the underlying issues becomes crucial for both consumers and policymakers alike.
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Video “You're Being Lied To About Energy Costs” was uploaded on 12/19/2025 to Youtube Channel Business Insider




































Mostly well done but the question that first needs asking is what percentage of the time do you expect to have electricity? We have 99.9% now. If you increase the amount of intermittent solar and wind, you're either going to suffer black outs or pay for an expensive backup system. Modern economies can't suffer black outs, batteries are not a viable solution, so you build a complete 2nd system to power the grid which is basically why renewables in their current form cannot be the answer
Wind and solar are intermittent. Therefore they're effectively infinitely expensive.
BS. Take away the government subsidies and factor in long term replacement costs wind and solar are scams.
You missed the impact of crypto on power demand
Its on scale of trad data centers if not AI data centers
Utilities are playing both sides of the game. They want these industrial sites to claim their maximum possible usage so they can justify more infrastructure upgrades. Those are the fixed and transmission costs that rate payers will be stuck with for decades to come with zero relief from lower generation costs. Simple changes like data center curtailment less than 1% of the time could extend the life of existing equipment for decades and negate the need for many of these expensive upgrades. Same thing with smarter design of far flung consumers which could be connected via battery buffers could improve reliability and drive down redundant costs but utilities do not want that because it reduces their long-term returns.
China makes the solar and wind mills, Usa should not depend in China.
A gigawatt is NOT a measure of Energy. Energy = Power x Time. Any real comparison with renewables requires Gigawatt/Hours. This is an extremely important difference. A 1 Megawatt solar farm only produces that much power for 3 Hours/day in North Eastern U.S., while fossil fuel and nuclear produce power 24 Hours/day. in other words, the comparisons in this video are off by 800%.
There is no such thing as global warming. It’s a hoax.
Florida Power and Light included a 'minor' notification as an aside in my December bill that rates are increasing.
We need stronger laws on disinformation in advertising.
Excellent essay, thanks!
Fantastic reporting! Huge breadth of topics covered in this subject. I would say that one important piece that Elizabeth missed was the Marginal Pricing of Wholesale Electricity, where the wholesale price is set by the most expensive generator. Renewables are cheap generators and are making massive profits for energy companies because their wholesale electricity payment rates are set by expensive peaker plants.
Wow! What a well sourced and nuanced video. Thank you!
Heavily biased left wing opinions more than actual facts. Statistics can prove anything depending on how they are presented.
Solar and wind are less predictable, and cannot be ramped with demand, so you need storage (batteries). Solar generation peak is much earlier than demand peak, and wind is usually much less predictable. Since we do not have adequate batteries, most grids use peakers (natural gas generators that can ramp quickly). Peakers get fatigued faster, are less efficient, and cost more since continuous operation causes much less wear and tear.
Didnt go too deep on the issues with renewables huh? And I love how “ prices have decreased” is supposed to equate to “cheaper”.
The problem with our energy economy is special interests ("$").
I can only see what's happening in my back yard and in New England, last year the utility did not proceed with building a planned power plant because rooftop solar is supplying.that demand. So I wouldn't throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Modern electricity production has four main pieces, generation, transmission, distribution and storage.
HOO DIS?
If you do nothing and just rely on the utility to supply your power, your monthly payments are guaranteed to go up over time. They will never go down. If you put up your own money to start building out your own solar, you're probably spending the same amount or even a little more but in the end you will have energy security. Start small and do what you can over time. Net-metering agreements with utilities used to be good, but the utilities are paying out less and less as time goes on so buy your own battery and store excess solar there. Millions of little distributed rooftop solar production sites are the only way consumers will ever keep pace with electrical demand.
Hi B.I. … You night find it "profitable" to do a deep dive on how electric utility billing works and why it is kinda absurd to attempt to distribute all costs across kilowatt-hours consumed instead of things like peak current draw and peak "reactive power" requirements.
Start targeting anyone corporate class or higher and anyone carrying water for them
Great video.
We need more people looking into the real causes instead of being mindless sheep believing whichever team they grew up listening to.
You failed to point out that fossil fuel power stations require back up fossil fuel power stations or the grid needs more capacity than is normally used day to day.
You also failed to point out that without energy storage (storage of coal or gas) most fossil fuel power stations output is unreliable and variable.
Biased report.
More of the same old lame climate crisis, gotta stop the carbon emissions tripe.
The problem with wind/solar is the consistancy. Its great when its windy and sunny but the problem is when the wind dies and its night time and demand is up. Nobody wants the power to go out when lack of wind/solar so that turn to fossil fuels. The fossil fuel, coal and natural gas plants, can't just turn on and off in an instance when it gets cloudy or the wind dies down so that are contantly running in the background anyway. I think the key would turning back to nuclear power. I'm hopeful for Small Modular Reactors will really take off.
Let's put solar panels on all rhe warehouses in the country and electrify the trucks. They will use all the power they generate without any need for new transmission lines.
The color banding on the background makes the video look like complete dogshit
Lost me at “climate crisis”.
Texas regulations should be duplicated to other states. The problem exists when you mandate renewables, but don’t take into account the demographic configuration of a state. Streamline regulations, and light tax incentives at best.
Your biases is showing, this video is pure Bullship,…..
The World could run without Renewables. But renewables cannot run without back up systems of fossil fuels, Nuclear, or huge expensive battery storage facilities. To be honest, renewables must include all factors to have an apples to apples comparisons. a 10MW rated wind turbine only produces about 3 MW of power on a comparable continuous basis. And you need to add in the storage costs for when the wind and sun are not available. When you do so, renewables right now, are not cost competitive. And anyone who says they are is telling a false narrative.
The states with the highest energy costs are the least attractive locations for wind and solar, and yet their governments insist on building such generating capacity. Electricity in Germany, one of the worst places for wind and solar, but insists on going with renewables, is twice as expensive and less reliable as power in France generated with nuclear power.
Whatever the radical right says, it’s a LIE!
Why are California energy cost almost double the national? I work in e waste recycling. We have no market for recycling solar glass. That's a Huge disposal cost not considered in your Cost of Solar.
Energy is inherently ubiquitous and free.
It is power-service which costs.
This bimbo is gaslighting us. The video claims to explain rising electricity costs and defend renewables, but it fails from an Extended EROEI perspective. It ignores true net energy accounting (backup, storage, transmission, lifecycle costs, and subsidies) focusing instead on prices and project delays. Its "deep dive" is superficial; without crunching the full energy numbers, it misrepresents the real energetic limits and costs of the system. It utterly ignores the empirical debate about renewables in the energy literature. Journos spread misinformation.
If renewables were really the cheapest, all-things-considered, source of electric power generation then Germany would have the lowest power costs in the world. They don't. In fact energy intensive German industries are packing up and moving operations to places like the US.
The merits of this video would be far more prominent without the detracting obnoxious music. It just makes this video look very unprofessional and more like an amateur tiktock video instead of a professional video with intellectual merit.
Republicans are still the biggest problem in all this. They wont invest anything on the federal level. Make everything political. Make Republicans lose elections and all this will improve.
Of course the customer base is going to pay for new capacity for the AI. When Ford builds a new automobile plant the customer base that buys Ford vehicles pays for the capital costs. It's no different in power generation. I suppose in power generation one could finesse the issue by requiring power companies to borrow the capital to pay for the expansion of capacity, and then incorporate the repayment of the loans into the fees they charge the AI server farms. But it's going to be a choice between one of these two options. States that are falling over themselves to demonstrate new investment and job growth are not going to be eager put the cost of new energy supply on the companies they're working so hard to attract.
When are they going to harden the grid against Carrington events
If I buy land in the middle of nowhere and want to get hooked to the grid, who pays? We all know the answer. So if Amazon, Facebook, et al want to build data centers then THEY need to foot the entire bill. Period.
We need to do whatever it takes to build nuclear yesterday.
Yes Peaker plants must back up renewables. So dishonest to skip the numbers in this area and just have green experts vaguely saying that's exaggerated problem. Really? Prove it.
Maybe I am wrong but is Texas not one of the biggest investors in solar and wind?
Unreliability/intermittence. Costly infrastructure. Low life span. Need for fossil fuel back ups. Subsidies.
Low energy density. Unpredictable weather.
All those things make "renewables" a complete waste of time and an unnecessary fraud destroying habitats and increasing mining demand, while driving up prices.
Solar and wind are not clean energy they are alternative energy. All carbon production associated with solar and wind are front loaded during manufacturing and will NEVER offset that carbon production during its life cycle. I support wind and solar as a means to produce your own off grid power but what you do with the blades and solar panels when they are damaged by weather such as heavy winds or a hail storm. The panels contain toxic substances, and the blades are fiberglass. These are not biodegradable and poison the soil.
You know you kind of blew yourself out of the water obviously you have a narrative and a premise that you want to to support and it’s all wind and solar. Here’s the problem. Solar is only available during the day and batteries are very limited. You know I’m not listening anymore. You’re not credible.
The last segment is the thing.
Private for-profit ownership of infrastructure / natural monopolies only produces perverse incentives, which then have to be mitigated by regulatory agencies, requiring massive governmental bureaucracy that's constantly subject to industry capture.
This model should be done away with completely in favor of direct public ownership of all infrastructure and any sector demonstrating a tendency toward natural monopoly. "Small government" advocates should welcome this, as it involves less governmental bureaucracy than the regulation of for-profit monopolies, and without the perverse incentives that create industry capture – their only job is to provide the service, and their only accountability is to the public they serve. And "free market" advocates should also welcome this, since it does not interfere with any actually existing free market, but instead provides the material basis for free enterprise to operate, at lower cost and improved efficiency. This is not theoretical, but proven in practice.
This has been referred to as "sewer socialism", but that's a mistake – it's not any kind of "socialism" at all, it's just free-market capitalism with the sense not to try applying "free market" nostrums to sectors of the economy where there is not, and cannot be, any kind of free market – again, infrastructure and other natural monopolies.
Appreciate the thoroughness of this reporting. It's a complicated matter, but government is too slow to react and enforce innovation to make it sustainable. And that's not even the political games done for profit, but certainly attributes to it. Sorry to future generations that will suffer for it. SILO will become a reality.