From a Representative Magaziner press release and original reporting
“The number one thing I hear from Rhode Islanders is that life has become unaffordable,” said United States Representative Seth Magaziner (RI-02) during a press conference on Thursday. “While big oil companies are making record profits, working people can barely afford to fill their tanks and keep the lights on. When Democrats are in the majority, we must come out of the gate fast with real plans to lower costs, and that is exactly what this agenda is about.”
Rhode Island households are spending an average of $557 more on gasoline since the start of the war in Iran. Gas prices in Rhode Island now average $4.36 per gallon, and diesel has climbed to $6.32 per gallon. With winter approaching, many Rhode Islanders also worry about whether they can afford to heat their homes. Meanwhile, Exxon, Shell, and Chevron made $36.4 billion in profits in Quarter 2 of 2026 alone, including Chevron’s highest quarterly earnings ever.
During the press conference, Magaziner outlined his agenda to lower energy costs, including:
Ending price gouging by the big oil companies, including by passing the Big Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act, which would tax big oil companies’ excessive profits and return that money to consumers through quarterly rebates.
“This is $36 billion of profits in just three months while the price of gas has skyrocketed. We need to pass the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act, a bill led by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in the Senate that I have co-sponsored in the House. What this bill says is that, basically, when big oil ratchets up the price of gas, they have to take half of their profits and return it to the American people in the form of rebates, literally checks in the mail. So we would compare the price of oil to what it was a year ago, take their profits, cut them in half, and make them share at least half of their windfall profits back with the American people. It is wrong for big oil companies to be making record profits while working people can barely afford to keep the lights on.”
Requiring data centers to pay for their own energy costs and grid upgrades, preventing those costs from being passed on to everyday ratepayers.
“The second thing that we must do is control the impact of data centers on energy costs. All over the country, Big tech companies are building data centers that use a tremendous amount of electricity, driving up costs for ratepayers. Now, whether to build a data center is a local decision, but too many people across the country have reported that these data centers have been shoved down their throats with no real review. The big tech companies have the money to pay for their own energy. These companies are worth trillions of dollars. Not billions, trillions of dollars. They shouldn’t expect rate payers to pick up the tab for their electricity. So I support the language released in the Senate two days ago that requires data centers to pay their own energy costs.”
Restoring clean energy tax credits that President Trump and Republicans in Congress canceled, to bring more affordable, domestic power onto the grid.
“Third, we need to keep building more affordable, clean energy. As long as we rely only on oil and gas to power our grid, we risk prices spiking every time there is a conflict somewhere far away. Every time there’s a conflict in the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela, or any other oil-producing nation, our prices will spike. And so we need to build more locally produced clean energy here at home. Offshore wind, solar, and other locally produced clean energy can deliver below-market-rate energy to the grid, and we must move forward. Part of that means restoring the clean energy tax credits that President Trump and the Republicans canceled last year. Those tax credits helped fund clean energy projects all across the country, including here in Rhode Island. They were working before they were canceled. We need to restore them.”
Enacting permitting reform to cut the red tape that has slowed the development of clean energy projects across the country and driven up costs for consumers.
“Fourth, to get these projects online faster, we need real permitting reform. We have seen in Rhode Island how endless red tape can delay energy projects from reaching the grid and drive up costs for consumers, costing millions in legal fees and litigation that consumers ultimately have to pay. The Revolution Wind Project, which is going online this year, the offshore wind project that will supply Rhode Island with about a third of our electricity going forward, took eight years to get permitted. And every year it took was a year we spent money on paperwork and lawsuits instead of building out our energy infrastructure. I am very pleased that just yesterday a bipartisan group of senators, including Senator Whitehouse, unveiled a permitting reform proposal. It includes a lot of good things. A lot of good things to make it easier, particularly to build the transmission lines that are needed to connect utility-scale solar and wind energy to the grid. And this bill, again, as I mentioned earlier, also requires data centers to pay their fair share, which is great as well.”
Ending the costly and unnecessary war in Iran, which is driving up the price of oil.
“Fifth and finally, we have to end the war in Iran. This unnecessary war in Iran is not making us any safer. It is driving up the cost of oil and gas. It is costing us at least a billion dollars a day of taxpayer money that could and should be spent here at home instead, for no good reason. Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the authority to decide when we as a nation go to war. And we need to use our authority to end this unnecessary war in Iran and bring price relief for the American people. And I believe that with Democrats in the majority, we will do just that.”
“We work in partnership with the George Wiley Center to represent low-income utility consumers to fight for sustainable access to affordable utilities,” said Jennifer Wood, Executive Director at the Rhode Island Center for Justice. “Utility access is critical to housing affordability. A utility termination due to the inability to pay the bill can be the first step to eviction and homelessness.
“It’s impossible to ignore the reality that energy costs are rising to never-before-seen levels in Rhode Island, despite intensive oversight and attempts to mitigate escalating costs through offsets and subsidies.
“This winter is a good example. Global fossil fuel costs are extremely volatile, and Rhode Island's costs reflect that instability. Cost drivers are up, so costs in Rhode Island are up, too. However, customers will not immediately feel that pain because bill relief, bill credits, and enhanced discounts will take effect at different times over the next six months, blunting the impact of those increases. The increases are there, however, and when the one-time and short-term mitigation measures go away, the entire system has risen to new cost levels, and that will be the reality for consumers in the following years unless structural changes are achieved. For our low-income clients, the only long-term, durable solution is a yes and proposition.
“We fight for lower costs overall, mitigation strategies, and access to energy efficiency and a transition away from fossil fuels as the path to bending the cost curve downward over the long term. In January, a new discount structure for the most economically distressed customers will be implemented, offering a sliding scale of discounts up to 75% off the bill for the lowest-income customers. These discounts, combined with federal LIHEAP subsidies and state bill credits, are essential for harm reduction. Rhode Islanders rely on this complex mix of partial solutions to keep their lights and heat on, but we remain tethered to the instability of fossil fuel costs.
“Rhode Islanders who heat their homes with gas or oil feel that every day, and we’re just entering the peak heating season.
“Even our electricity is generated predominantly by burning fossil fuels, with solar, wind, hydro, and biomass making up less than 15% of our energy resources. High energy costs are even more severe for many of our clients who live in rental properties that do not comply with housing code requirements and lack energy efficiency. If you have holes in the roof and inefficient windows, you pay a lot more for heat. For the low-income families we represent, the only way out is through. We will continue to fight for protections for the most vulnerable customers from utility shutoffs, while also advocating for a cost structure that will prevent customers from falling behind in the first place.
“These measures will be temporary band-aids until the energy system is transformed to diversify energy sources and achieve a new baseline for affordable, renewable energy. That may feel like a distant reality, but the strategies Congressman Magaziner is highlighting today are how we get there. That is why our center, as an example, along with a group of other plaintiffs in Rhode Island and nationwide, sued to restore $7 billion in funding for access to solar power for the lowest-income families and communities who can’t afford the initial investment for solar equipment, including nearly $50 million that was targeted to come and help families in Rhode Island. Congress had already approved and appropriated those funds, but the current administration illegally terminated the program. Just last week, the federal court here in Rhode Island ruled that the termination of the program was indeed illegal. Affordable renewable energy will lead to a new future for our clients and for all consumers, and it takes all of us working together to make that happen.”
Here’s the video:
Solar and wind are the cheapest way to create electricity and power in general. We need to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels, not only to make it cheaper for everyone, but to prevent the disasters of the climate crisis from getting worse. Yes we need to help lower income people keep the lights on and stay warm, but long term we need transformation of both the energy system and to create an economy based on justice.