Gas is not the only utility price increasing. Energy prices overall for home heating and air conditioning continue to skyrocket nationwide, and as summer bears down, American families can expect more painful increases to come.
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Broadly, energy costs are up 30% in the past year. Electricity is up 11% year over year (YoY), and natural gas prices have spiked to a 14-year-high due to high demand.
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Pennsylvania electric bills are among the highest in the nation, and they will be rising by almost 40% on June 1^st. But the price increases are, indeed, happening, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. UGI electric bills, for instance, will increase 46%, from 8.85 cents per kWh to 12.9 cents, up from 6.2 cents per KWh only six months ago.

‘Really Brutal Choices’

Along with rising energy prices, unpaid utility bills are piling up, too. More than 20 million households have unpaid utility bills totaling $23 billion in February 2022, up from $10.5 billion in December 2019, just before the pandemic began. The end of temporary state moratoriums will make matters worse, with shutoffs in many homes inevitable.

“There will be a new tsunami of shutoffs,” Jean Su, director of the energy justice program at the Center for Biological Diversity, tells CNN. Shockingly high energy bills will force cash-strapped Americans to make “really brutal choices” regarding energy usage, Su says.

Broadly, energy costs are up 30% in the past year. Electricity is up 11% year over year (YoY), and natural gas prices have spiked to a 14-year-high due to high demand.

Already burdened by high gas prices, which threaten to hamper summer travel plans, the rise in utility costs can be attributed to increasing oil prices, the war in Ukraine, demand outstripping supply and broader inflation.

Middle-class Americans’ budgets are also going to be strained. “There are not a lot of programs to help middle- and moderate-income,” Tanya Jones, director of energy assistance at HeartShare Human Services, a nonprofit, tells Marketplace. And so they are struggling the most. Because after they pay their rent and then they buy food, they’re not eligible for any type of assistance.”

‘A Perfect Storm’ Impeding Savings

In an interview with Newsmax Finance, Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, says persistent inflation and low drilling under the Biden administration have contributed to the crisis.

“This is a topic we have been talking about since June of last year when the Fed claimed inflation would be transitory,” Hild says. “We saw no indications of that, and at that point, spending increases and liquidity from the Fed Reserve were the cause. Now, we are seeing real supply chain issues. With the Ukrainian conflict, we have real supply shocks to the system.

“In addition to that, a report from Rystad showed last year marked a 75-year low in new oil and gas discoveries and a lot of this is linked to the ESG craze,” Hild continues. “Liquidity, supply chain issues and disinvestment in oil as ESG has taken hold, have created a perfect storm that we are worried will last for a long time.”

Hild fears for Americans’ savings as high energy costs continue throughout the summer, noting, “Price rises will cut into disposable income for those who have any left.”

Finally, Hild takes issue with the Biden administration’s approach to rising energy costs, maintaining that it has “stuck to outrageous platform positions. They have not reversed their position on the Keystone XL pipeline. It is terrifying for the average consumer that the administration is not reversing course to lower costs. It’s really hurting consumers right now.”