Ann Siegle used to spend anywhere from $150 to $280 monthly on her power bill. Since installing solar panels on the roof of her East Lansing, Michigan, home in 2023, she said her monthly bill has dropped to as low as $6 per month. 

The initial cost of the system was $26,000. That price was later offset by an $8,000 federal tax credit through the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. Siegle also signed a co-generation power agreement with her local utility, earning $2,000 last year by selling unused power generated from the panels back to the utility. 

With the tax credit and earnings from the power agreement, Siegle calculates that she spent about $16,000 on the solar array. 

As the cost of residential power continues to rise across Michigan and the country, the panels are paying for themselves quicker than expected, Siegle said at a press conference alongside Michigan Democrats on Monday sponsored by Climate Power, a communications organization based in Washington, D.C., that works to build political and public support for climate action. 

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Siegle said her solar panels have not only insulated her from rising electricity costs, but also allowed her to save as other bills go up. “Everybody wants to save money, regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum,” Siegle said. 

Michigan state Rep. Julie Brixie said that as the price of fuels swell as a result of the war against Iran by the U.S. and Israel and the Republican Party’s refusal to invest in renewable energy sources, their constituents’ cost of living will continue to increase. These cost increases will affect poorer families in Michigan the most, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell said, because a larger share of their income is spent on fuel. 

This comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has touted that this year’s tax refunds will be “substantially greater than ever before,” due to new individual tax breaks approved in 2025. Trump told taxpayers they should think of him when their tax refunds hit their accounts. 

White House spokesman Kush Desai said President Trump has always been clear about temporary disruptions as a result of Operation Epic Fury, the administration’s joint effort with Israel to attack Iran. 

“The benefits of the President’s Working Families Tax Cuts, however, go well beyond a one-time tax refund check,” Desai said in a statement to Inside Climate News. “Key tax provisions like full equipment expensing are set to accelerate long-term job, wage, and economic growth and continue to pay dividends in the coming years.” Full equipment expensing allows businesses to deduct the entire cost of qualifying capital investments in the same year they go into use.

A section of Trump’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal, “Ending the Green New Scam,” describes $15 billion in canceled Department of Energy funding for “unreliable renewable energy, removing

carbon dioxide from the air, and other costly technologies that burden ratepayers and consumers.” The section also describes $4 billion in canceled Department of Transportation funds for “wasteful and ineffective EV charger programs.” 

Even if Trump’s tax credits and accelerated depreciation provide benefits to taxpayers and businesses, Dingell said, average families are getting slammed with higher costs across the board that completely wipe out any savings, she said. 

Michiganders are eager to get their refunds as the date for filing income taxes approaches, Rep. Brixie said, as residents feel the pinch of higher gas prices, rising utility bills and more expensive groceries.

“They think Americans will quiet down and smile once they’ve got their tax refunds,” Brixie said. “But we all know that a tax refund is a drop in the bucket.”

While the U.S. exports more oil than it uses, prices set by the global petroleum market leave no country immune to higher pump prices that rise with the price of crude oil. Since the military conflict began, U.S. gas prices have gone up $1.14 to an average of $4.12 per gallon, according to AAA’s fuel price estimator for Monday. 

The war in the Middle East has sounded a wake-up call to countries relying on fossil fuels as the choking of the shipping passage, the Strait of Hormuz, affects fuel and goods prices across the globe. It’s also demonstrated how countries with diversified and renewable energy sources have fared best during this conflict, Brixie said. 

Yet, Brixie said, Trump paid $1 billion of taxpayer money to stop an offshore wind project and ordered Consumers Energy’s J.H. Campbell Generating Coal Plant to continue running despite retirement plans. 

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel sued after the White House issued an executive order directing the Department of Defense to purchase power from selected coal-fired power plants. Fulfilling these orders has cost the plant’s majority owner roughly $600,000 per day, Bloomberg reported in February. 

The war with Iran has made it clear, Brixie said, that Michiganders can no longer rely on the unpredictable and outdated oil and gas industry.

Kevin Self, a strategy and sustainability lecturer at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, said that while China has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into renewable energy as a cornerstone of the country’s drive for energy independence, the U.S. is slowing its own growth by thwarting clean energy incentives and projects. 

Michigan saw nearly $28 billion in nuclear energy investments and more than 26,000 new clean energy manufacturing jobs added to the pipeline between 2022 and early 2025, Self said. But with Trump’s tariffs and the regulatory and financial uncertainty imposed on the business environment, the president has stalled that progress, Self said. 

More than 20 clean energy projects have been delayed or canceled in Michigan as a result of the tariffs, Self said. It also removed roughly 7,800 jobs from the state’s pipeline and cost the state to miss out on more than 4 gigawatts of clean energy generation, he said.