Trump’s LNG Energy Export Policy Cost Households $12 Billion in First Nine Months of 2025
Price hikes triggered by the export of fossilized gas cost U.S. households an additional $124 from January through September 2025
WASHINGTON — American households paid $12 billion more for natural gas between January and September than they paid a year earlier, coinciding with a surge in exports of LNG under the Trump administration, according to an analysis of federal data by Public Citizen released today. Additionally, the costs borne by residential consumers in the first nine months of 2025 are up 22% from the same period a year earlier.
Over the same 9 month time period of 2025, the export of natural gas has surged by 22%, matching the surging costs borne by U.S. households. Record exports of natural gas—primarily in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipped from eight U.S. terminals—have played the largest role in this significant price burden for household consumers, according to the findings.
“Trump explicitly promised voters he would slash utility bills by half within the first year, yet in the first nine months of his term, they surged, squeezing some of the country’s most vulnerable households,” said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program and author of the report. “Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have acted as global gas salesmen, traveling to Europe to push exports and gut European methane regulations while attacking mainstream climate science. Meanwhile, Trump has done nothing to keep prices down at home.”
During the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly proclaimed that, if elected, he would slash Americans’ energy bills in half within 12 months. Trump authored an Oct. 1, 2024 op-ed for Newsweek where he pledged: “We will cut energy and electricity prices in half within 12 months—not just for businesses but for all Americans and their families.”
“Household energy costs have climbed three times faster than overall inflation under the Trump administration, sending the costs of heating and powering a home through the roof,” said U.S. Senator Edward Markey (D–Mass.), who joined a press event on the report. “Record-breaking levels of natural gas exports are breaking the bank on your monthly energy bill.”
The United States is the world’s largest natural gas exporter. Twenty-five percent of domestic natural gas production is now exported—up from just 5% a decade ago, according to Public Citizen’s analysis of federal data. Just eight LNG export terminals consume more natural gas than all 184 million Americans with gas utility service.
“Americans’ utility bills are rising at twice the rate of inflation,” said Slocum. “Limiting or prohibiting LNG exports would provide immediate relief for households across the country, but it would require action from the White House. Trump would need to stand up to some of his fossil fuel donors to make our energy more affordable.”
One in six Americans—21 million households—are behind on their energy bills. Forced disconnection from utility service because families cannot afford payments is climbing: 3 million in 2023, 3.5 million in 2024, and 4 million in 2025, according to the analysis.
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