Gas prices are high – there’s no easy way to say it. We are all living it and feeling the pain. And unfortunately, we’ve been here before. Just like before, I’m optimistic gas prices won’t stay high forever. Fuel prices ebb and flow for a myriad of reasons, and as they go up, they eventually come back down.
But what has consistently gone up without coming back down? The cost to power our homes and businesses.
There are many reasons energy prices rise. Fuel costs, growing demand, transmission needs, and infrastructure all play a role. But government policy matters too. We live in an energy-rich nation. My home state of West Virginia alone has enormous resources that can help power this great country. Yet Democratic-led energy policies have too often made it harder and more expensive to mine it, drill it, produce it, and use it.
Thanks to the work of Republican attorneys general and President Trump’s EPA, we have successfully fought back against many of those policies. But the fight isn’t over, and if Democrats win in November and pursue the same regulatory and litigation agenda, American families will once again be left paying the price.
Take New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act. The law sought to impose $75 billion in fees on energy producers across the country – including those who don’t even operate in New York – for their supposed contribution to climate change, even though they complied with federal and state regulation at the time. New York State would have pocketed that money for themselves – while millions of American energy consumers would see their prices spike. In response, West Virginia led a coalition of 22 Republican attorneys general in suing New York Attorney General Letitia James and other state officials to stop the law.
And we won.
On August 31, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York struck down the law as “simply beyond the limits of state law.” We’re now fighting the same fight against a similar law in Vermont. Unlike New York’s law, which set a $75 billion total, Vermont’s law bases liability on the state’s calculated costs associated with covered greenhouse-gas emissions rather than setting the same fixed statutory total.
Then there are the EPA’s power-plant rules. Since the Obama administration, Washington has repeatedly tried to use the Clean Air Act to impose sweeping restrictions on coal- and natural-gas-fired power plants. West Virginia led the challenge that resulted in the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in West Virginia v. EPA, then led a 25-state coalition challenging the Biden administration’s 2024 power-plant rule.
This month, the Trump EPA finalized the repeal of the majority of that 2024 rule and proposed eliminating the remaining greenhouse-gas standards for power plants. EPA estimates the finalized repeal will save as much as $310 billion.
Republican attorneys general have fought on smaller fronts too by challenging federal regulations affecting everyday items that American families rely on, like your gas stoves. Every new federal government mandate comes with a cost, and attorneys general have an important role in challenging federal agencies when they believe those agencies have exceeded their legal authority.
And here is what the other side is offering. Take Eli Savit in Michigan. He is a career climate activist whose campaign is backed by green energy special interest groups from New York and California, like the Jane Fonda Climate PAC. He has vowed to continue Dana Nessel’s lawsuit against Line 5, a pipeline that provides vital energy to Michiganders in the Upper Peninsula. In New York, Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s positive steps to lower energy costs. And in Florida, Jose Javier Rodriguez has fought to pass a green energy mandate that would require the state to move to 100% renewable energy in less than 25 years – a requirement that would cause energy prices to skyrocket.
The person sitting in a state’s attorney general office plays a significant role in national energy policy through the courts – which impacts how much your electricity bill is each month. For Republicans, the answer is straightforward: produce more of that energy right here at home. Let Americans responsibly develop American resources, strengthen our energy security, and produce the energy that will power our nation and our future. For Democrats, the answer is making the electricity that American families need to power their homes more expensive through burdensome regulations and taxes.
The choice is yours, America.
JB McCuskey is the attorney general of West Virginia.
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.
