Utility hikes set off scramble to help Americans pay for heat this winter. “It’s like we just walked off a cliff,” one aid group said about its funding shortfall amid an influx of applications. “All that money’s gone.”
have either missed a utility bill or paid it late, a Bank of America/CivicScience survey found last month. The share jumped to 25% among households earning less than $50,000 a year. And according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which represents state directors of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, the bottom 20% of U.S. earners are already set to spend more than 23% of their incomes on this year’s energy bills — up from 21% in 2020.
“I’ve always put our oil bill and our gas bill on the credit card, because I never, ever have enough money to pay it,” she said. “I don’t have savings, period.” At least one advocacy group is challenging utilities’ efforts to raise rates in the first place. The Sierra Club is suing utility companies in at least nine states to block or limit proposed rate increases. The environmental group argues that consumers would be less vulnerable to volatile fuel prices if utilities moved further away from natural gas and coal and invested more in renewables.
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