As temps rise, Americans face hike in electric bills
As the U.S. faces a blisteringly hot summer, millions of people already reeling from the coronavirus’s economic fallout are about to face sharp increases in electric bills that may drive some to the brink of financial ruin.
With soaring temperatures expected in July and August, people stuck at home because they’re unemployed or working remotely will depend on air conditioners more than ever. That’s going to drive up power bills by as much as 25% in parts of the U.S. at a time when they were already a significant hardship for about 50 million people, according to analyst estimates and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Those increases, which will amount to as much as $50 more per month, may be manageable for most middle- and upper-income families. But they’ll be a heavy burden for those near the poverty line who spend a disproportionate amount of their income on utility bills. In many cases, they’ll be families whose lives have already been upended by the pandemic.
“There will be people faced with figuring out whether to pay their bill or put food on the table,” said Sindy Benavides, chief executive officer of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a Washingtonbased civil rights group.
Low-income families on average spend almost 9% of their budgets on energy bills — triple that of middle- and upper-income households, according to the Energy Department. The problem is particularly acute among Black and Hispanic families, who are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty as the national average, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the U.S. Census Bureau.
The struggle to pay utility bills will only get worse as temperatures soar, outbreaks continue and high unemployment persists.
“People will start to make very tough choices,” Jacqui Patterson, director of the NAACP’s environmental and climate justice program, said. “It’s another situation where people are paying the price of poverty with their lives.”
Almost the entire contiguous U.S. has a high chance of having a long, hot summer, according to the U.S. Climate Prediction Center. California has already suffered two heat waves, while New York, Boston and Philadelphia have all reached or exceeded 90 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
Europeans will probably face higher bills too. Households in Britain are estimated to be using 17% more gas and 25% more electricity as people plug in electronic devices, cook more at home and now start to switch on fans to keep cool, according to Uswitch, a website that helps consumers compare utilities’ prices.
In the U.S., working from home has already increased residential demand for electricity by as much as 15% in some regions during work hours, according to Innowatts, which monitors 34 million electric meters.
But the first few months of the pandemic were during the spring. As air conditioners kick into high gear, those figures will be much higher.
Higher utility bills may force some to seek shelter in government-run cooling centers or other public buildings, said Jeremiah Bohr, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. That will put them at a greater risk of being exposed to the virus.
“It highlights the larger issue of how difficult it is to make ends meet,” Bohr said.