Environment | Ten Across
Feeling the heat: Energy insecurity in the nation’s hottest states
Photo by NASA on Unsplash
by EMILY SCHMIDT | May 5, 2022
The mounting energy insecurity crisis reached national headlines when 34.5 million Americans households faced energy disconnection in September 2020 as shutoff protections, put in place towards the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, were set to expire.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated energy insecurity in households already struggling or likely to struggle paying energy bills, and millions of Americans face inhumane choices between paying these bills, feeding their children and getting important medications.
Dr. William Bryan, director of research at the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA), said that energy insecurity is an intersectional issue.
“Energy insecurity is an issue…about finding finances and affordability of energy. It’s an issue…about quality of housing and access to affordable housing,” he said. “But it’s also [that] energy insecurity impacts people’s health.”
Climate change has worsened energy issues, with more extreme climate events happening frequently in the “Ten Across” region, or the eight states through which U.S. Interstate 10 passes. Examples include Hurricane Ida, the Texas deep freeze and the Telegraph Fire in Arizona.
Breaking down the basics
Dr. Diana Hernandez, a professor at Columbia University who researches the intersection of energy, equity, housing and health, defines energy insecurity as “an inability to adequately meet household energy needs.” Paying an electric bill on time can determine whether a family is able to turn the lights on, cook a meal on the stovetop, cool their home in the summer or keep their life-saving medical devices running.
Researchers calculate a household’s energy burden by dividing a household’s total energy costs by the total household income.
According to the 2020 Energy Burden Report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) the average American household spends 3.1% of its income on energy costs. Households that spend more than 6% of their total income face a high energy burden, while households that spend more than 10% of their income experience a severe energy burden.
A bird’s-eye view on energy insecurity
Energy insecurity is a growing issue in millions of households across the U.S. The struggles to pay high energy bills, including but not limited to electricity, are felt deeply in every geographic region, regardless of a hot, cold, dry or wet climate.
According to the 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, more than one-fourth of all American households reported experiencing any energy insecurity. About 20% of households reported reducing or forgoing food or medicine to pay energy costs, and 10% of households reported leaving their home at an unhealthy temperature.
The ACEEE found that 67% of low-income households face a high energy burden. Black, Hispanic and Native American households, as well as those with older adults, experience disproportionately high energy burdens.
Dr. Sanya Carley, professor and co-director of the Energy Justice Lab at Indiana University, said the differences between households likely of having their utilities disconnected and those that are more energy insecure grows in magnitude significantly when thinking about race and ethnicity. She said Black households are three times more likely to be disconnected from their service provider than White households; Hispanic households are four times more likely.
Some counties face incredibly severe energy burdens, such as in Alaska where average energy costs can take up as much as 60-80% of the income of low-and-moderate income households. These rural counties rely heavily on diesel electric generators for power, and Alaska’s per capita energy consumption is the fourth highest in the nation in part from the long and harsh winters.
Similarly, Alabama ranks just behind Alaska in total electricity consumption per capita, but third for the residential sector. This is due to the high demand for air conditioning in hot, humid summers and heating in the winters. In fact, 7 out of 10 households use electricity for heating in Alabama.
Energy insecurity continues to worsen, Carley added. In fact, energy prices rose 59% over the course of 2021, higher than any other commodity. The jump can be related to weather emergencies like the February freeze in Texas and Hurricane Ida, in addition to increased demand for gasoline and crude oil.
“One of the untold stories I think about energy insecurity are the coping strategies—so things that households do to get by,” Carley said. “These are, in my mind, the most severe of all.”
Energy insecurity in the Ten Across region
Regionally, the South and the West have the most households experiencing energy insecurity compared to the rest of the country. U.S. Interstate 10 runs through these two regions along the nation’s southern border. Connecting some of America’s largest metropolitan areas, this corridor—dubbed the “Ten Across” region—has experienced intensifying climate change impacts, including intense and prolonged heat, record-breaking hurricanes, unprecedented freezes, amid climbing energy prices and overall inflation.
Of the 136.7 million electric customers in the U.S., 32% reside in the eight states in the Ten Across region: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
From 2015-2020, electric bills generally rose in the Ten Across region. Alabama had the highest monthly rate consistently over the past six years, although Arizona saw a $10 spike with a record number of days above 110 degrees in the summer of 2020. California also had a $15 increase, but it was still lower than several other states along the I-10.
On average, a customer in the Ten Across region spent a yearly total of $1,484.40 on electricity in 2020, which was higher than the national average of $1,409.52.
This data does not reflect the steep increase in energy cost in 2021 or the first quarter of 2022. Texas residents, for example, faced extremely high electric bills after the deep freeze that knocked out power for days and killed hundreds of people in February 2021.
According to the ACEEE, residents in multiple cities situated along the I-10 face high, even severe, energy burdens. Thirty-four percent of all households in Houston and 35% in San Antonio have a high energy burden. Furthermore, 30% of households in Phoenix and 26% in Los Angeles have a high energy burden.
The Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA) also cites New Orleans as a city with one of the highest energy burdens for low-income residents, the median energy cost ranging from 10-13% of a household’s annual income.
Contributing factors
Experts agreed that living in poverty is one of the biggest factors that predisposes a household to energy insecurity. In 2020, 37.2 million people—11% of the U.S. population—lived in poverty. The Ten Across region has some of the highest populations living under the poverty line, including in Mississippi, Louisiana and New Mexico.
Ellen Zuckerman, utility program co-director for the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP), said that Arizona is one place where energy insecurity has shined a light on vulnerable individuals in hot climates.
“There are certain areas of the state that have very high energy burdens, and all of this is coming to a head in the backdrop of climate change,” she said, nodding to the case of a 72-year-old woman who died in September 2018 after her electricity was shut off for failing to pay her bill.
Zuckerman also said the high per capita mobile home ownership in Maricopa County in addition to the rest of the large mobile home population in Arizona is connected to energy insecurity. Mobile homes can become extremely hot, so cooling them requires large amounts of energy.
SWEEP’s New Mexico representative Tammy Fiebelkorn said that much of the infrastructure and housing stock in her state has not been weatherized since it was built. She said it would take about $500 million to update every low-income home in New Mexico, but the state doesn’t have that level of funding.
Poor investment in weatherization also plagues the southeastern states where the I-10 runs. Dr. William Bryan, from the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, said energy insecurity is rooted in southern history.
“Some of these cities along the I-10—Baton Rouge, Mobile, New Orleans—these are the cities where segregation is very stark and Black neighborhoods have seen disinvestment in terms of housing…and green space,” Bryan said.
He added that households in historically segregated neighborhoods pay a higher proportion of their income on energy bills on average.
Solutions and gaps in support
In different parts of the Ten Across region, experts repeatedly say that progress has been made to address energy insecurity but, still, not enough is being done.
At the federal level, households can receive support from the Low Income House Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Founded in 1981, this program provides funding for “home energy bills, energy crises, weatherization and energy-related minor home repairs.” In addition, the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) helps reduce energy costs for low-income households by increasing each home’s energy efficiency. Families typically save $372 or more on energy costs through improved weatherization.
With these energy assistance programs, Bryan said one of the main problems is that renters cannot access them easily. It is often up to landlords whether they want to weatherize and improve the energy efficiency of their properties, and renters cannot make substantive changes even though they are the ones paying the energy bills.
Bryan said few energy assistance models cater toward renters, but the South has been one of the first regions to adopt the “On-Bill Tariff.” The model recognizes energy efficiency investment as a tariff added to consumer bills, rather than a loan. As a result, a renter or property owner’s credit debt profile would not be impacted by taking out a new loan, and the program is more easily accessible for those with low credit scores.
In Arizona, the Arizona Corporation Commission provides electric companies the choose between two disconnection options during periods of extreme weather. They can stop disconnections from June 1 to Oct. 15 annually, or when outside temperatures stay below 32 degrees or will exceed 95 degrees.
However, Zuckerman said the disconnection policies are not enough to lift energy burdens throughout the state. She added that knowing which people are most in need and helping them when they seek help is the key to making progress on energy insecurity.
New Mexico recently passed the Community Efficient Energy Development Block Grant, which provides a total of $10 million for services to increase energy efficiency in low-income, frontline communities.
“With this kind of program, we’re actually reducing their energy use, improving the comfort of their home, improving their health and reducing their utility bills,” said Fiebelkorn.
Lessons for the future
As temperatures rise and intense storms become more frequent this summer, the potential for higher energy bills and power grid failures also increases for households in the Ten Across region.
Bryan said that the South’s experience with energy insecurity demonstrates that it’s not just an urban problem.
“Certainly, there are lots of people in urban areas like Atlanta or Mobile or New Orleans or Baton Rouge or Jacksonville…that do experience energy insecurity,” he said. “I think rural residents have not been on the frontlines of conversations about climate change.”
Bryan added that places like rural Alabama, Mississippi and the panhandle of Florida need the most improvement in weatherization and clean energy. The South, he said, is a window into what the rest of the country will struggle with the prioritization of preparing for future climate change in urban and rural areas.
Zuckerman agreed that there needs to be more proactivity in combatting energy insecurity.
“For example, identifying the customers who are most at risk, maybe because of a history of prior utility disconnection, or because they're renters, and they happen to be renters in an area of town, where we know the housing is particularly old,” she said.
Fiebelkorn pointed out that the I-10 runs through many poverty-stricken areas of the country and said that states need to ensure that energy efficiency and electrification benefits are getting to those communities.
“We should always pay attention to programs and policies that serve frontline communities because that is really the indicator of how we as a society are doing.”