An aerial view of a 33 megawatt data center with closed-loop cooling system, amid warehouses on October 20, 2025 in Vernon, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
“It’s hard to see utility bills coming down in this decade,” said one industry analyst.
Although the rising cost of groceries has gotten a lot of attention in recent weeks, US consumers are also increasingly under pressure from the rising cost of electricity.
A new report from researchers at The Century Foundation and financial abuse watchdog Protect Borrowers has found that the average overdue balance on utility bills has surged by 32% over the last three years, going from $597 in 2022 to $789 in 2025. What’s more, the report estimates that roughly 1 out of every 20 US households has utility debt that is “so severe it was sent to collections or in arrears.”
The increase in overdue utility bill debt has come at a time when electricity costs have been growing significantly faster than the overall rate of inflation, the organizations found.
“Comparing twelve-month moving averages from March 2022 to June 2025 (to adjust for seasonality), monthly energy costs… nationwide rose from $196 to $265—a 35% jump, or nearly three times overall inflation during that period,” noted the report.
The organizations said that the reasons for these price increases are complicated, although factors include “poorly regulated monopolies overcharging customers to the tune of $5 billion a year,” as well as the explosion in the construction of energy-devouring artificial intelligence data centers and the Trump administration’s attacks on renewable energy projects that began under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
AI data center construction has become a major controversy in communities across the US, and a CNBC analysis published late last week found that “in at least three states with high concentrations of data centers,” electric bills have grown “much faster than the national average” over the last year.
Virginia, which has the highest concentration of AI data centers in the country, saw electricity prices surge by 13% over the last year, while data center-heavy states such as Illinois and Ohio saw electricity costs go up by 16% and 12%, respectively.
Rob Gramlich, president of power sector consulting firm Grid Strategies, told CNBC that the massive growth in data centers means that “it’s hard to see utility bills coming down in this decade.”
The Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers conclude that their report paints “a grim picture” of “increasing energy prices, rising overdue balances, and squeezed household budgets that together are pushing families deeper and deeper into debt.”
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Protesters gather at First Ward Park for the ‘No Border Patrol In Charlotte’ rally to raise their voices for the immigrant community and against US Border Patrol activity in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 15, 2025. (Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“In a scenario where this administration is trying to sow division,” said one local organizer, “we see an organic movement of community members trying to provide support and assistance.”
In Charlotte, North Carolina, the Trump administration’s latest anti-immigration crackdown garnered headlines over the weekend both for “how inhumane and aggressive” the operations by US Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were, as one journalist said, and the action that local residents immediately took to protect their neighbors from arrests and raids.
“I just started recording them,” said Rheba Hamilton after federal agents pulled up to her house in a vehicle and intimidated two Latino men who were decorating the trees in her yard. “They left.”
As the agents pulled away, she yelled, “Get the hell out of my yard, you assholes!”
Hamilton, who toldThe New York Timesshe had tried to warn the workers against hanging the Christmas lights due to the deportation operations, said it was “terrifying” to see Border Patrol agents on her property.
“I was concerned about this happening,” Hamilton said. “We’ve got great people here… Nobody’s going to regret moving here if you come here with the right kind of heart, and that includes our immigrants.”
Hamilton filmed the Border Patrol agents after North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, called on Charlotte residents to “bear witness” to ICE arrests and raids at businesses and homes as the Trump administration launched “Operation Charlotte’s Web”—the latest stop on its nationwide attack on immigrant and Latino communities, which has also unfolded in Chicago and other cities.
“If you see any inappropriate behavior, use your phones to record and notify local law enforcement, who will continue to keep our communities safe long after these federal agents leave,” said Stein last week.
Operation Charlotte’s Web began as the administration released the names of more than 600 people detained in the Chicago area whose arrests may have violated a court order, and revealed that just 16 of them had an alleged criminal history.
More than 3,000 people in all have been arrested in the Chicago area since ICE and other federal agencies began “Operation Midway Blitz” in September.
Border Patrol Commander-at-large Gregory Bovino reported that at least 81 people were arrested in Charlotte by the end of the weekend, with the mass arrests completed in about five hours, and claimed that those who were taken into custody had “significant criminal and immigration history”—similar claims that have been made about the operations in Chicago.
The local advocacy group Siembra NC said “the most immigrants were arrested in a single day in state history” on Saturday.
The community development group CharlotteEast told the Guardianon Sunday that it had received an “overwhelming” number of reports from residents about Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in the area, including at places that were previously protected under the Biden administration from immigration enforcement.
“The past two hours we’ve received countless reports of CBP activity at churches, apartment complexes, and a hardware store,” executive director Greg Asciutto told the outlet.
The Charlotte Observerreported that congregants at a church in east Charlotte “scattered into the woods” after masked federal agents arrived and detained a member while the church community was doing yard work.
“The agents asked no questions and showed no identification before taking one man away, whose wife and child were inside at the time,” the newspaper reported. “Inside the church, women and children sobbed as they wondered whether their loved ones had been taken.”
Sam Stein of the Bulwarknoted that community members “got the heads up and ran to the woods to confront ICE agents with, among other things, deafening whistles. ICE responded by threatening to throw gas canisters at them.”
Advocates handed out whistles—like those used by many in Chicago in recent weeks—to local residents on Sunday, and hundreds of people packed a training session on Friday night where Carolina Migrant Network advised them on banding together to stop ICE from raiding their communities.
Charlotte NC: Activists are handing out whistles to community members to alert their neighbors to the presence of ICE and Federal Agents pic.twitter.com/0lranCzuip
A grocery store, Compare Foods, also announced it would be offering free delivery to keep people from having to venture out while federal agents are in the city.
“For all those customers who don’t feel comfortable coming to the store in person, they can shop online, and then we will have it delivered through our delivery service to their home,” said Omar Jorge, owner of the local chain.
Manolo’s Bakery, meanwhile, closed over the weekend for the first time in its 28-year history, with owner Manolo Betancur telling the Observer, “We need to protect our families [from] family separation.”
Stefania Arteaga of the Carolina Migrant Network told the Guardian that the grassroots weekend efforts show “allies are learning how to help their neighbors” in the city.
“In a scenario where this administration is trying to sow division,” she said, “we see an organic movement of community members trying to provide support and assistance.”
Daniel Nichanian of Bolts magazine said Charlotte—which is not near a US border—likely was chosen as President Donald Trump’s latest target because of a “war” between ICE and Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden, going back to 2018 when McFadden was among five Black Democrats who won sheriff elections in the state on the promise of ending cooperation with ICE.
The agency targeted Charlotte two years later, posting billboards that showed mugshots of immigrants arrested in the area.
As with other cities Trump has targeted for mass deportation operations this year, crime has been falling in Charlotte, with an 8% decrease in overall crime last month compared to a year prior, and a 20% reduction in violent crimes.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
British political commentator Sami Hamdi speaks to the media in London, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, on his return to the U.K. after he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 26 while on a speaking tour in the U.S
A BRITISH journalist and vocal advocate for Palestinian rights touched down at Heathrow airport today after being detained for more than two weeks by US immigration authorities.
Sami Hamdi was held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers at San Francisco International Airport on October 26.
He had been in the middle of a speaking tour discussing Israel’s genocide in Gaza when the government revoked his visa.
The State Department did not specify what triggered the revocation. But the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA), whose lawyers challenged Mr Hamdi’s detention in federal court, said he was detained over his support for Palestine and “punished for criticising Israel.”
After arriving back in Britain today, Mr Samdi told the press: “This wasn’t just an attack on me, it was an attack on the freedoms of ordinary Americans and citizens worldwide.
“ It was an attack on their freedom to speak the truth in the face of hatred.
Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
Shoppers browse produce at Sabor Tropical Supermarket in Miami Beach, Florida on July 23, 2022. Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Although President Donald Trump didn’t actually confess that his global trade war is driving up the cost of groceries for Americans, he did finally drop his dubiously named “reciprocal” tariffs on key imports on Friday.
According to a White Housefact sheet, Trump’s new executive order ends his tariffs on beef; cocoa and spices; coffee and tea; bananas, oranges, and tomatoes; other tropical fruits and fruit juices; and fertilizers.
The New York Times had reported Thursday that “the Trump administration is preparing broad exemptions to certain tariffs in an effort to ease elevated food prices that have provoked anxiety for American consumers.”
The reporting drew critiques of the administration’s economic policies, including from members of Congress such as Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who said that “Trump just admitted it: Americans are footing the bill for his disastrous tariffs.”
“While this move may alleviate some of the cost increases Trump caused, it will not stop the larger problems of rising inflation, business uncertainty, and economic damage done by Trump’s crazy tariff scheme.”
Also responding to the Times reporting, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote on social media Friday: “After months of increasing grocery prices, Donald Trump is finally admitting he was wrong. Americans are literally paying the price for Trump’s mistakes.”
More lawmakers and other critics piled on after Trump issued the order. CNN‘s Jim Sciutto said: “Trump administration now acknowledging what economists and business leaders have told us from the beginning: that tariffs are driving up prices.”
MeidasTouch and its editor in chief, Ron Filipkowski, also called out the president on social media, with the outlet sarcastically noting, “But Trump said his tariffs don’t raise prices.”
Congressman Don Beyer (D-Va), who serves on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, said in a Friday statement that “President Trump is finally admitting what we always knew: His tariffs are raising prices for the American people.”
“After getting drubbed in recent elections because of voters’ fury that Trump has broken his promises to fix inflation, the White House is trying to cast this tariff retreat as a ‘pivot to affordability,’” Beyer said, referencing Democrats who won key races last week, from more moderate Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, the incoming governors of New Jersey and Virginia, to democratic socialist Mayors-elect Zohran Mamdani of New York City and Katie Wilson of Seattle.
In addition to those electoral victories for Democrats, last week featured a debate over Trump’s trade war at the US Supreme Court. According to Beyer: “The simple truth is that Republicans want credit for something they think the Supreme Court will force them to do anyway, after oral arguments before the court on Trump’s illegal abuses of trade authorities went badly for the administration. Trump is still keeping the vast majority of his tariffs in place, and his administration is also planning new tariffs in anticipation of a Supreme Court loss.”
“The same logic—that Trump’s tariffs are driving up prices on coffee, fruit, and other comestibles—is equally true for the thousands of other goods on which his tariffs remain,” he continued. “While this move may alleviate some of the cost increases Trump caused, it will not stop the larger problems of rising inflation, business uncertainty, and economic damage done by Trump’s crazy tariff scheme.”
“Only Congress can do that, by reclaiming its legal responsibility under the Constitution to regulate trade, and permanently ending Trump’s trade war chaos,” he stressed. “All but a handful of Republicans in Congress are still refusing to stand up to Trump, stop his tariffs, and lower costs for the American people, and unless they find a backbone, our economy will continue to suffer.”
As the Associated Pressnoted Friday, “The president signed the executive order after announcing that the U.S. had reached framework agreements with Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Argentina designed to ease import levies on agricultural products produced in those countries.”
Trump’s order also came just a day after Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee released a report showing that US families are paying roughly $700 more each month for basic items since Trump returned to office in January—with households in some states, such as Alaska and California, facing an average of over $1,000 monthly.
The president has floated sending Americans a $2,000 check, purportedly funded by revenue collected from his tariffs, but as Common Dreamsreported Wednesday, economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research crunched the numbers and found that the proposed “dividend” doesn’t add up.
Indigenous demonstrators shout slogans during a demonstration at Parque Central Cayambe, Ecuador, as part of the national strike on October 1, 2025 | Felipe Stanley/Agencia Press South/Getty Images
Taking from Trump’s playbook and reviving colonial trope, President Noboa labelled Indigenous protesters ‘terrorists’
Recent years have seen Western governments extoll their democratic values while leading increasingly harsh crackdowns on dissent, with activists arrested and accused of terrorism.
Now, Ecuador has gone even further. President Daniel Noboa’s far-right government met recent nationwide anti-austerity protests with a brutality that has left two protesters dead, 473 injured, 12 missing, and 206 detained, according to the Alliance of Human Rights Organisations of Ecuador.
A 31-day national strike erupted on 22 September, nine days after Noboa removed fuel subsidies, raising the price of diesel by 55% from $1.80 to $2.80 per gallon. The demonstrations, which disrupted the movement of goods and people across the country as protesters blocked main roads, were led by Ecuador’s largest Indigenous organisation, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities, which represents many of the people who will be the hardest hit by the price hikes.
The government responded by imposing a state of emergency and deploying troops to break up protesters, leading to state-inflicted violence that drew criticism from civil rights groups in Ecuador and across the world.
Human Rights Watch reported it had “verified 15 videos” of “soldiers or police officers forcibly dispersing peaceful demonstrations and using tear gas and other ‘less lethal’ weapons recklessly and indiscriminately”, while Amnesty International warned of “excessive use of force against protesters by the security forces, possible arbitrary arrests, as well as the opening of abusive criminal proceedings and freezing of bank accounts belonging to social leaders and protesters”.
The unrest came as Ecuadorian voters prepare to vote on a series of referendums on 16 November. Perhaps the most controversial question they will answer is over whether to accept foreign military bases on Ecuador’s territory.
The ballot does not explicitly refer to the United States, but it may as well do; this week, US homeland security secretary Kristi Noem made her second visit to the Latin American country in four months to scout out locations for new US military bases.
Noboa’s government has long pushed for greater alignment with the US. While Ecuadorian opposition leaders warn that US military bases would threaten Ecuador’s sovereignty, both Noboa and Donald Trump’s administrations argue that they would help to stop transnational crime gangs from using the country to smuggle drugs from South America into the US.
Although polls suggest a slight majority of voters are against the bases, many are still undecided. Regardless of how they vote, Trump’s influence over Noboa’s government is already clear from the reaction to the recent Indigenous-led demonstrations. Taking from the US president’s playbook, ministers accused protesters of carrying out “terrorist acts” – directly echoing language used against activists in the US – and at least 13 people have been charged with terrorism after allegedly attacking the offices of police in Otavalo, a city in northern Ecuador.
This decision to cry terrorism is part of a strategy to turn social discontent into a security threat. Rather than answering the demands of protesters – the majority of whom were the poor people, transport workers and Indigenous peoples who will be hardest hit by fuel price increases – the government has chosen to criminalise dissent and militarise social conflict to protect its austerity measures from popular resistance.
But protest is not terrorism. It is the democratic voice of those who suffer most from inequality.
Unequal sacrifices
In Ecuador, an oil-producing country, the dispute over fuel subsidies is a recurring issue.
The subsidies have kept prices for petrol and diesel artificially low since the 1970s, but consecutive governments have argued they put too much strain on the national budget, costing the state billions, while international financial institutions have criticised them for “distorting” the economy. In 2022, the subsidies were equivalent to around 2% of Ecuador’s GDP, according to a report by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
But for farmers, truck drivers and informal workers, the subsidies provide indispensable respite from low incomes and rising living costs. Therein lies the clash: what governments see as an easy way to make savings on their balance sheet will mean hunger for many ordinary people.
One key measure of the cost of living in Ecuador is the monthly price of the ‘basic family basket’, a government-defined set of goods needed to sustain a family of four, including food, clothing, medicine, household items and transport costs. In May this year, the price of that basic family basket reached $812, while the monthly minimum wage remained at $470. This disparity will only worsen with the removal of the diesel subsidy, which will make transport, food and the production of goods more expensive.
Previous attempts to scrap the fuel subsidies have caused the social unrest that has marked Ecuadorian politics in recent years. Two previous governments tried to do so in 2019 and 2022. Both instances sparked huge demonstrations that forced ministers into U-turns.
This time, Noboa’s government, which was elected in 2023, does not appear to be backing down. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities eventually called off their strike on 23 October in the wake of the state’s brutal repression, having been unable to secure any concessions.
If the government does succeed in removing the subsidies, it will lead to rising costs that will not be borne equally across Ecuador, a plurinational and multi-ethnic country where wealth is concentrated in certain areas and among certain racial groups.
The most recent data finds that 72% of the population self-identifies as mestizo, a term that refers to a person of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry. The next largest demographic group is the Montubio people (7.4%), a rural ethnic group from coastal Ecuador; followed by Afro-Ecuadorians (7.2%), who also primarily live in the coastal provinces; then Indigenous people (7%) who largely live in the highlands and Amazon; and white people (6.1%), who have historically been based in larger cities.
The Afro-Ecuadorians and Indigenous populations in the country’s Amazon and rural coastal provinces will suffer most from the increases in transport and labour costs. Many of the families who will be affected are already impoverished, with a 40% poverty rate in these areas, far above the national rate of 28%.
Ecuador’s coast is dominated by export-oriented agribusiness and ports; the Andean highlands by public administration, services and manufacturing; while the oil extraction in the Amazonian east accounts for a large part of the country’s national income, without translating into local well-being.
The paradox is evident: the territories that produce wealth also face the greatest inequalities and deficits in health, education and basic services.
Women will also be hit harder by the removal of the fuel subsidies than men. The country’s 3.6% unemployment rate masks key gender inequalities; among women the rate is 4.6%, compared to 2.8% among men. Similarly, only 27% of women have access to adequate employment, with sufficient income and stability, compared to 41% of men, according to official figures.
The greater job insecurity created by rising food and household goods prices will disproportionately affect women. They will be forced to work longer hours to survive, particularly where they are responsible for the care of children or elderly relatives – another burden that disproportionately falls on women.
There is no neutrality in austerity: there is a regressive redistribution that privileges fiscal balance at the expense of the country’s most impoverished.
‘Terrorism’ and state coercion
While protests started in the immediate aftermath of the announcement on 13 September that the subsidies would be scrapped, the coordinated national strike began on 22 September.
Over the following 31 days, news broadcasts were full of images of this resistance across Ecuador: closed roads in Cuenca, pots and pans banging in Quito, women and children fleeing tear gas in San Rafael de la Laguna.
President Noboa imposed a state of emergency in many provinces, a measure that suspends constitutional guarantees such as the freedom of assembly, the inviolability of the home and correspondence, and the freedom of movement due to curfews. Last year, the Constitutional Court issued a warning to the president over the repeated use of this tool, which it said should be applied only in “extraordinary” circumstances.
By also condemning the protesters as “terrorists”, the government aims to delegitimise collective action, depoliticise the dispute over income and enable repression. Labelling Indigenous people as ‘offenders’ revives an old colonial trope of ‘internal enemies’, where racialised bodies are seen as a threat to order.
Noboa’s discourse is also part of a well-known Latin American genealogy: during the years of counterinsurgency, the labels of ‘subversion’ and ‘terrorism’ justified massacres, states of siege and arbitrary detentions. Today, that same language is being revived to shield a neoliberal model that is based not on consensus but on coercion.
For now, the question is not whether Ecuador can sustain fuel subsidies in the long term, but who gets to decide this. Removing subsidies without dialogue or progressive compensation mechanisms is governing against the majority.
A truly democratic policy would require real dialogue with Indigenous, Afro-Ecuadorian and peasant organisations, and including their voices in defining policies on the prices of utilities, including fuel, water and energy.
Wage and labour reform is also needed to link the minimum wage to the cost of the basic basket of goods and reduce gender and ethnic gaps, as well as territorial investment in the Amazon and rural areas to provide health, education and basic services. Finally, the demilitarisation of social conflict and the repeal of laws that criminalise protest.
The Noboa government seems to be choosing another path: shielding austerity with repression. But labelling those who defend life and bread for their families as terrorists does not resolve the conflict: it deepens it.
Protest is the language of those who refuse to be expelled from history by a model that promises order in exchange for inequality and silence.
*Rose Barboza is a Brazilian researcher and doctoral candidate in Social Sciences at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal. She specialises in transitional justice, feminist epistemologies and critical race theory. Her current work explores comparative cases of state repression and social movements across Latin America.
British political commentator Sami Hamdi speaks to the media in London, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, on his return to the U.K. after he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 26 while on a speaking tour in the U.S
