More than 30% or US families are having difficulty paying their monthly electricity bills.
According to the most recent report by the Energy Information Administration, 1 in 3 Americans are struggling to pay their monthly electric bill. Although geography played very little into whether or not a household was struggling, there was a very clear racial division between those that could easily afford their electricity, and those that could not.
Nearly 20% of Americans had to cut back on food, medical or other necessary purchases in order to pay their electric bill, and more than 10% had to keep their house or apartment at an unsafe temperature in order to try to keep their heating and cooling expenses within reach.
Of the households that were struggling to pay their electric bills, half of them had annual incomes of less than $20,000, and more than 40% had at least one child living there.
Racial minorities made up an extremely large portion of the struggling families, with about half of the group being African-American, and 40% being Hispanics. A 2016 study found that African-American and Hispanic households tended to pay more for the electricity per square foot than the average household.