Turning Up the Heat: Utility Bills in a Changing Climate
Why energy bills keep climbing and which policy levers could bring them down.
Turning Up the Heat.
32 pages · PDF
record
Heating and cooling bills hitting all-time highs
$0 options
For rural households with no cheaper alternative
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Policy levers that could bring bills down now
Why energy bills keep climbing and which policy levers could bring them down. This report pulls together what families across the country are actually paying — and lays out where the system is failing them.
The squeeze on utilities isn’t an accident or a force of nature. It’s the product of specific choices about how our economy works and who it works for. Understand the choices, and you can change them.
What we found
- Extreme weather is turning heating and cooling into a year-round cost.
- Rural and fixed-income households have the fewest ways to cut back.
- Efficiency upgrades and rate reform could ease bills — where they're adopted.
Last winter my heating bill was more than my car payment. Out here there's no cheaper option.
— Dana R., Rural Vermont
Methodology: figures shown are illustrative sample data for this design mockup. The published report draws on public price indexes, wage data, and first-hand accounts collected from families across all 50 states.
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