More than one-fourth of households in the U.S. experience energy insecurity, a term that refers to the inability to adequately meet energy needs. This is according to the Energy Information Agency’s most recent Resident Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) for 2020, data which is collected every five years.
Gasoline prices were fortunately low that year; the COVID-19 pandemic generally receives credit for that. But the administration serving at the time was also able to proclaim that the U.S. had finally reached energy independence by “marking the first time in 67 years that our annual gross energy exports exceeded our gross energy imports,” another contributing factor to modest prices at the pump.
Energy insecurity numbers will likely climb, however, with the next RECS survey to be conducted in 2025. The recently released annual Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE), which collects information on the buying habits of U.S. consumers, indicates a rise in energy spending not commensurate with a rise in income compared to 2020. Some of the poorest in the country are paying up to 36 percent of their income on electricity. Adding gasoline purchases puts that figure close to 53 percent, meaning that some folks are allocating more than half their income just to fuel their homes and vehicles.
A household is considered energy poor if six percent or more of its income is spent on utility bills, and according to this latest CE, roughly half the country now fits that category. Only those who make well over six figures are minimally impacted by increasing energy prices.
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Kristen Walker is a policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit www.theamericanconsumer.org or follow us on Twitter @ConsumerPal.