States Need to Answer for Stubbornly High Electricity Bills
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2020/02/14/states_need_to_answer_for_stubbornly_high_electricity_bills_484115.htmlFebruary 14, 2020
While fuel prices are plummeting, electricity prices are staying stubbornly high. This is bad news particularly for tens of millions of low-income Americans. It also puts an unnecessary drag on economic growth.
Natural gas prices, as measured by the benchmark Henry Hub Natural Gas Spot Price, have fallen nearly 50 percent since the end of 2017. And yet according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average American family paid 4 percent more per kilowatt hour of electricity in November 2019, the most recent period for which information is available, than in December 2017.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, low income families spend 8.6 percent of their income on energy, three times more than non-low-income households. And it hurts.
A September 2018 study by the U.S. Energy Information Administration found one in five American households goes without food or medicine at least once a year to stay warm in the winter or cool in the summer. Seven million households face this decision nearly every month.
Simply put, those who can afford Teslas can deal with higher electricity prices. But many senior citizens, the poor and those struggling to get by are hit hardest....