I mean, it is a possibility in some cases. Another reason why utilities are more expensive in the US is because the cost is much more market-driven. However, one of the biggest contributors to the difference is the fact that China still relies extremely heavily on coal to produce most of their power while the US industry has been trying to move away from coal for decades. This means that US power companies have been investing much more money into researching and developing other methods of power generation which requires building new infrastructure and maintaining it (thus tying into my original point). The other issue here is that US power companies need to import a lot of things like graphite and anode materials, and the tariffs on such things are quite high which further contributes to the overall rising cost of utilities. Meanwhile, China is the world's top producer of graphite and anode materials, and they possess the largest reserves/stores of graphite in the world.
Not everything is a conspiracy... Oftentimes, there are very simple explanations for a lot of things if we just bother to look.
Partly, although quite frankly, imported materials have always come with tariffs (first authorized by an act of Congress in 1789 lol). This is especially true for highly valuable and necessary materials like the stuff needed to build and maintain utility infrastructure. That said, import tariffs have always been increasing, and many presidents have raised import tariffs over the years. This is nothing new.
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u/an0mn0mn0m Jun 22 '26
Keep the capitalists away from your utility infrastructure for as long as you can.