High electricity bills are a major issue in Connecticut, but state lawmakers can’t agree on how to bring them down.

This week, trade unions pushed Connecticut to double its commitment to offshore wind power. But a conservative think-tank claims the move will actually leave customers paying more.

One thing most people in Connecticut agree on: they pay too much for electricity.

“They’re charging too much,” said Elaine Levy, of Norwalk. “I don’t know what they charge per kilowatt. I have no idea.”

Electric rates are so high because New England relies heavily on natural gas, whose price can fluctuate wildly. To create more energy supply, Connecticut is looking to the Atlantic Ocean.

“We’re building offshore wind right now. The first in New England,” said Gov. Ned Lamont. “It’s called Revolution Wind. We’re doing that alongside Rhode Island.”

Revolution Wind, developed by the Danish company Ørsted, is being built 15 miles off the Rhode Island shoreline. Starting in 2026, it is expected to power 350,000 homes across Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Will offshore wind lower your electric bill – or actually cost you more? That depends on who you ask.

A Sierra Club report claims the technology could save customers between $2.79 and $4.61 per month, depending on the price of natural gas.

“Offshore wind is a critical resource for achieving New England’s climate goals and protecting New Englanders from energy price shocks,” the report states. “And it does so cost-effectively under a range of future gas prices.”

But opponents argue that offshore turbines are too expensive to build and maintain. Costs have risen significantly in recent years due to supply chain disruptions, commodity prices and inflation.

Analysts expect those pressures to ease by 2026, but a new report from the conservative Yankee Institute predicts that green energy mandates will still cost the average customer $8.25 a month.

“Residents will become less likely to be able to turn on their lights, charge their phone, watch TV,” said Yankee Institute’s Andy Fowler. “We need to identify the cost, and we need to ask ourselves, ‘Does this make our lives better?’ And the answer is no.”

Higher costs led Eversource to sell its share of Revolution Wind in February, but the utility will remain as a construction management contractor.

“We continue to believe that offshore wind represents the most significant opportunity to decarbonize the electric generation footprint of New England,” Eversource President and CEO Joe Nolan said in a statement. “Eversource will remain an integral player in this historic shift to a clean energy generation mix by focusing on our strengths as a regulated transmission builder and operator and bringing the benefits of these investments to our customers.”

Rising expenses also led Avangrid to pause Park City Wind, a separate project that was set to invest $1.5 billion into the Bridgeport waterfront. And this fall, Connecticut delayed picking a new offshore wind developer amid public frustration over electric rates.

“I also have to pay special attention to cost,” Lamont said on Monday.

Union leaders think wind power costs will drop soon.

“The federal interest rates are coming down, which makes these projects more affordable,” said Connecticut AFL-CIO president Ed Hawthorne.

Hawthrone also noted that wind power is creating thousands of jobs at the State Pier in New London, which is a major staging area for offshore wind construction. However, upgrades at the pier are more than $200 million over over budget, according to the Connecticut Port Authority.

The wild card in the green energy debate is Donald Trump. The incoming president has promised to drastically cut back on offshore wind.

“We are going to make sure that that ends on Day 1,” Trump told a rally this summer. “I’m going to write it out in an executive order. It’s going to end on Day 1.”

Despite Trump’s threat, Connecticut and its neighbors are moving ahead.

“I want energy independence for Massachusetts. I want energy independence for America,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said on Tuesday. “This is part of how we get there.”

Lamont signed legislation committing Connecticut to a carbon-free electric grid by 2040.

“If we do nothing to address climate change, we're just going to end up paying in a different way,” Hawthorne said. “Climate change is real; it's here. And we’ve seen it over the summer. We saw it with what happened down in Oxford, Sandy Hook.”

Oxford and several others towns were devastated by flash flooding in August. Initial damages were estimated at $206 million, according to a federal disaster request. Average temperatures in Connecticut have risen almost 3.5 degrees since the beginning of the 20th century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

Connecticut isn’t just looking at wind power. Lamont is work with Vermont and New York to deliver cheap hydroelectric power from Canada.

“I’m doing everything I can to increase energy, increase more carbon-free energy, with a special eye in terms affordability as well,” he said.

Top Republicans have proposed strict price caps for electric procurement contracts. They want to explore more traditional energy options.

“If there is zero-emission gas, you know, waste-to-energy plants, we should be looking at that as the technology. Or even smaller nuclear plants,” said state Rep. Vin Candelora (R-North Branford), the top Republican in the Connecticut House.

No matter where their electricity comes from, customers just want the price to come down.

"It's going to come to a point where you've got to choose in between what you eat or what you have to pay for," said Claude Harrison, of Norwalk.