Electricity bills are rising fast and eroding household budgets for millions of the public. The median household in the bottom fifth of earners spends nearly 10% of its income on energy, while the top fifth spends around 1%. In 2024, 43% of adults in households earning under $25,000 reported being unable to pay an energy bill in the prior year. Last week, the largest electricity market in the country signaled that this squeeze is about to get worse, and federal permitting delays are exacerbating the problem.On July 14, PJM Interconnection’s capacity market auction for the 2028 to 2029 delivery year cleared at the highest price legally allowed, $325 per megawatt-day, but there is still an expected shortfall in capacity of 6,831 megawatts. This is the second year in a row that the auction left PJM with a capacity shortfall relative to its desired one-event-in-10-year reliability standard. The auction is designed to mitigate the risk of rolling blackouts, when PJM’s 67 million customers need power most, by paying producers for their capacity and encouraging investment in reliable generation. The latest capacity auction will increase PJM ratepayers’ bills by as much as 5%. According to Patrick Cicero, Pennsylvania’s former Consumer Advocate, capacity payments from prior auctions have already cost the average Pennsylvania household “somewhere in the neighborhood of $220 to $320 per year.”