The energy affordability problem: policy, costs, and tradeoffs (ft. the Energy Bad Boys)

Electricity prices are rising faster than wages, and everyday customers are demanding answers. What’s causing it? What has worked to moderate prices? And where is the messaging behind power decisions and rates confused? On this episode of Power Perspectives, host Kinsey Grant Baker is joined by two veteran energy modelers, Isaac Orr and Mitch Rolling of Always On Energy Research and authors of the Energy Bad Boys substack, to cut through the heat-map politics and answer the question utility leaders hate to be asked: which policies are actually driving bills up, and which are convenient political cover? Isaac and Mitch walk through the data and models behind regional price moves, explain why costs show up in generation, capacity, and interconnection differently across markets (including lessons from MISO and SPP), and explain their position that the often-ignored implementation choices turn ambitious clean-energy goals into expensive real-world outcomes. Signup for the Energy Central Daily Newsletter: https://energycentral.beehiiv.com/subscribe