According to Bloomberg, residential electricity bills have been rising for months and are expected to rise even more this summer due to a combination of restricted natural gas and coal supply [thanks to Biden], a relentless drought in the Western US, and a statewide prediction for excessive heat.
Monthly costs will be more than 40% more than last year, according to Barclays Plc, while the US Energy Information Administration projects that retail residential rates would rise the most since 2008.
According to Barclays analyst Srinjoy Banerjee, US home electricity costs averaged $122 per month last year, but with natural gas prices above $8 per million British thermal units, that figure might jump by $49 this year. Gas was less than $3 a year ago.
According to Banerjee, the burden “disproportionately falls on lower-income groups.”
According to Cristina Martin Firvida of the AARP, higher bills are a serious issue for elderly individuals living on fixed incomes. Many people are worried not only about rising costs, but also about losing electricity if they can’t pay their bills. She says, “We have seen some really tragic and deadly effects.”
She refers to it as a “perfect storm.”
Due to the unmanaged Covid-19 epidemic and lockdowns, refining capacity has dropped substantially since 2020, raising fears of a supply crisis and driving up prices.
RECESSION, ALSO KNOWN AS DEPRESSION
The only remedy for these sky-high costs appears to be a recession, which would be a disastrous cure.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and US sanctions have thrown global crude and refined product trade flows into disarray, and global refinery capacity has become fairly low than it was before global epidemic, with some factories, including those in The U.S, permanently shutting down after COVID crippled fuel demand in early 2020.. The refineries are closed as a result of Biden’s COVID lockdowns.
People never seem to emphasise that no new refineries are being built, at least not in the United States. – Yes, Columbia, but not here.
According to economists, there is no easy fix for the costs continuing to rise. The quickest solution is something that no American consumer wants: a recession that results in job losses.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Independent Sentinel.