New government data being cited in a report by OilPrice shows that as the southern US has endured record-breaking temperatures, driving up electricity consumption by households, energy bills have been skyrocketing.
According to the new US Energy Information Administration (EIA) report, the average American household normally spends roughly $262 per year on air conditioning, however in the hot and humid southern US, those bills have risen to as high as $525.
The US National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA) estimated in early July that this summer’s home energy costs would increase by almost 12% to an average cost of $578, $61 more than the $517 it cost last summer. The most was paid by the southwest central region, which averaged $706, while the Pacific Coast, at $499, paid the least.
According to the data, almost 90% of US households utilize air conditioning (AC), with two-thirds relying on either central AC or a central heat pump as their main cooling equipment. The highest percentages of households using AC were found in the Midwest Census Region and South Census Region, where it was used in 92% and 93%, of households respectively.
NEADA Executive Director Mark Wolfe, in an interview with USA Today, said, “My sense is that we will have record cooling costs this summer,” noting those cost increases are “not as a result of prices but as a result of increased demand to address high temperatures.”
According to data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, July 2023 was the hottest month on record.
Meanwhile, the US has seen some of the deadliest wildfires in over one hundred years. On the Hawaiian island of Maui, where a wildfire burned the resort city of Lahaina to the ground, 114 people are confirmed to be dead, with estimates of a final total reaching as high as 1,000 people. According to the state’s Governor Josh Green, roughly 2,200 buildings have burned to the ground, and the damages are approaching $6 billion.
