Impacts of rising energy costs

As anyone who pays a power bill knows, high energy costs are forcing American families to make tough spending choices – especially those in lower-income brackets.

A recent article in U.S. News & World Report claims that until a new study this week, energy reports have failed to point out that “income plays a role in how families are adapting to rising energy prices” and that poor families are the hardest hit.

The claim that this is the first study to point that out is false. We’ve had a study on the impacts of rising energy costs on families up on our site for years.

But who said what first doesn’t matter in the end. What does is that some people in our country can’t pay their energy bills – and something needs to be done.

I pointed out a study last week showing that states that generate most of their electricity with coal have seen the smallest increase in energy prices. This is another reason for our country to keep investing in clean coal technology – we need to continue to use our most abundant fuel to help keep energy prices affordable for all Americans.