Across the Mid-Atlantic region, people are paying more for energy, and DC has seen sharper utility rate increases than Maryland and Virginia. On June 1, DC families are facing a rate increase of almost $10 per month due to high electricity prices on the regional grid. DC had a chance to lock in low-cost renewable energy with 2018 legislation, but that effort died in the DC Council.
When then-Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh (D) introduced the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act of 2018, it included a provision requiring Pepco to buy 80% of its electricity through long-term contracts for wind and solar power. Known as power purchase agreements, the arrangements work very differently from buying electricity generated with fossil fuels.
Prices for fossil fuels are tied to commodity markets that swing up and down. When gas or coal becomes more expensive, the price of electricity generated by gas or coal plants rises as well, and electric customers foot the bill. But renewable energy works differently. Once a wind or solar farm is built, the fuel is free. The wind and the sun don’t charge, so there are no price spikes for renewables.
How a Key Cost-Saving Measure Disappeared
Pepco, DC’s for-profit monopoly electric utility, did not like power purchase agreements. At the time, Pepco’s parent company owned the largest fleet of nuclear power plants in the country. Inexpensive wind and solar energy could undercut the pricey nuclear power sold by its parent company, and Pepco’s lobbyists went to work to strip power purchase agreements from the legislation.
Pepco paid for misleading ads on Facebook about the energy affordability measure, and then-Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D) claimed it would actually increase costs. But he did much more for Pepco: when the DC Council committee McDuffie chaired approved the bill, the energy affordability provision was gone. As a result, DC residents pay a range of about $290 to $480 in higher Pepco bills a year, totaling over $137 million annually.
What McDuffie’s Move Costs DC Residents Today
The average wholesale electricity price in PJM Interconnection, the regional power grid where Pepco continued to buy electricity after McDuffie tanked the power purchase agreement provision, was $88 per megawatt-hour in the first quarter of 2026. Utility-scale solar power purchase agreements in 2021, the latest the contracts could have been signed under the original legislation, came in at about $38 a megawatt-hour, $50 less.
That difference translates directly into higher utility bills today. Many DC households use around 600 kilowatt-hours a month. At the lower cost that power purchase agreements would have locked in, such households’ electric bills would have been $24 lower a month, an annual savings of $288. Across all Pepco customers in DC, the higher bills total $137 million a year.
Not all households use 600 kilowatt-hours a month. Small apartments may use less, and large homes likely use more. Older houses or apartments that lack adequate insulation or efficient appliances and HVAC systems—which are more often occupied by long-time DC residents and low-income families—use more energy, meaning they were hit even harder. For a larger, older, or less efficient home that uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month, McDuffie’s move totals $40 per month or $480 a year in higher costs. .
The broader takeaway is that renewable energy is not only about cutting emissions. It is also about reducing exposure to unpredictable fuel markets that can be rocked by geopolitical events thousands of miles away in places like Ukraine or Iran. Renewable energy flips the equation. Most costs are paid upfront during construction, while the energy itself arrives without a fuel bill.
DC had an opportunity years ago to lock in more affordable electricity for residents before wholesale power prices surged. But the District did not because Kenyan McDuffie sided with a monopoly utility company, and now DC residents are paying the price.
Mark Rodeffer chairs the political committee of the Sierra Club DC Chapter, which has endorsed Janeese Lewis George for mayor.
