Fighting the summer heat will be extra expensive this year.
The National Energy Assistance Directors Association and the Center for Energy Poverty and Climate released a report Monday that says utilities will cost the average American $719 between June and September. That is a 7.9% increase from last summer and much higher than the $476 it would have cost in 2014. The report is based on temperature data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and electric usage and price data from the Energy Information Administration.
The report says that people who have limited means may be in danger if they can’t afford to keep themselves cool. Higher temperatures brought about by climate change create dangerous living and working conditions, and last year was the hottest summer in 2,000 years, according to NASA. Still, that hasn’t prevented some states, such as Florida and Texas, from removing heat-related protections — including mandated water breaks — for workers. And the Biden Administration cut funding for low-income households designed to help with energy bills, exacerbating a crisis of what researchers call “utility debt.”
“Doctors working at Harvard Medical School and Yale School of Medicine have found that extreme heat events affect each individual, and various populations, differently,” the report says. “Temperatures that may not seem excessive to a ‘healthy’ individual (i.e., one without underlying medical conditions, who is not a child or elderly, etc.) can actually become dangerous for elderly, disabled people, low-income households, or other vulnerable populations.”