Democrats are dialing up their rhetorical attacks against President Trump over energy affordability as the war against Iran drags into its third week and oil prices remain elevated.
In a new report on Tuesday, top Senate Democrats accused the Trump administration of waging a “war on energy affordability” by canceling hundreds of clean energy projects even before the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran — strikes which have sent energy costs higher. The report is a precursor to a series of live-streamed round-table discussions that party leaders hope will keep a spotlight on their campaign mantra for the fall’s midterm elections, focusing on lowering the cost of living.
Republican analysts said they worried the Democrats’ messaging strategy was paying off.
“The war in Iran doesn’t help,” said Ron Bonjean, a G.O.P. strategist and partner at public relations agency ROKK Solutions. “It’s not hard to make a connection between high oil prices and the war with Iran and blame Republicans for it. We’re kind of setting it up for them.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Officials have said the administration is addressing energy costs by increasing domestic oil and gas production. Mr. Trump has also argued price spikes caused by the Iran war are expected to be temporary.
Whether Democrats can go beyond harnessing Americans’ concerns about the cost of living and actually coalesce around an economic strategy before the elections remains unclear. In the meantime, they are making the case that climbing electricity bills and gas prices are the direct result of White House policies favoring fossil fuels. The Senate report accused Mr. Trump of stalling clean energy projects and making them more expensive with his “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a law he signed last year that eliminated federal subsidies for wind, solar, battery storage and more. Since Mr. Trump took office, 354 clean energy projects have been delayed, blocked or been forced to lay off workers because of grant cancellations and other administration policies, Senate Democrats found.
“Rather than embrace the most affordable and quickest-to-build power sources, clean energy, Trump has waged an ideological war that will leave families poor and sicker,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said in a statement.
Mr. Schumer released the report with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the environment and public works committee, and Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the top Democrat on the energy and natural resources committee.
The report also attacks Mr. Trump and administration officials for mocking climate change and eliminating regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But it casts talk about climate change mostly in economic terms, accusing the Trump administration of repealing policies that would have “limited the spiral of extreme weather and mitigated climate’s cost pressure on our economy.”
Jesse Lee, a senior adviser with Climate Power, a climate advocacy group, said Democrats should be treading carefully when they talk about climate change right now.
“If you don’t lead with how you are going to make the cost of living front and center, the public is not gong to hear anything,” he said.
Mr. Lee argued that the war with Iran was sharpening the energy affordability message for Democrats.
Oil and gas prices, which have surged since the United States and Israel attacked Iran, rose again on Tuesday after Iran carried out attacks on production facilities. Gas prices now average $3.79 a gallon, according to the AAA.
“This really builds on the energy price crisis that Trump was already in, and Democrats would be wise to make that case in the same breath,” Mr. Lee said.
Republicans had been taking “victory laps” on energy at the start of the year, said Lindsey Cormack, a professor of political science at Stevens Institute of Technology who studies congressional communication. But the Iran war has given Democrats a way to coalesce their campaign arguments, she said.
Around this time last year, Republicans had mentioned “energy” in their online newsletters to constituents about twice as often as Democrats, Ms. Cormack’s research found. But as Iran has all but closed the Strait of Hormuz, a portal for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply, Democrats are increasingly talking about energy affordability, she said.
“It’s an effective strategy,” she said. “Both parties like to make these affordability claims when they have something to gain from it.”
How much Democrats benefit from the shift may depend on whether they can demonstrate that they have a broader plan, some analysts said.
Kristen Soltis Anderson, a Republican pollster, told The New York Times this week that Democrats needed to show they had an economic plan that went beyond restoring Biden-era subsidies.
“They can pantomime that they care about affordability, but what’s their plan to actually make things cheaper besides saying, ‘I’m not Donald Trump?’ she said, adding, “I think that’s still a vulnerability they have.”
Lisa Friedman is a Times reporter who writes about how governments are addressing climate change and the effects of those policies on communities.
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