Home energy costs are already soaring this winter, thanks to inflation and the ongoing European energy crisis...but this week's arctic freeze sweeping the country is only going to make it worse. "We did a report recently using federal energy data, and it showed that all Americans in aggregate, can expect to spend collectively more than $14 billion more for wintertime electricity prices than they did just last year," says David Holt, president of the Consumer Energy Alliance. "With this freeze hitting Texas and most of the country, you can expect electricity prices, natural gas prices, home heating prices to go up even more."
In addition to inflationary pressures driving up bills, Texans are also paying more to cover the costs of improving the power grid in the aftermath of the February 2021 winter storm. Combined with the effects of the freeze, Holt warns this could lead to even more economic pain. "When you put this in terms of individual homeowners, households, families, small businesses with a few employees that can't afford their electricity bills all of a sudden, then people get laid off or people can't afford to heat their homes," he tells KTRH. "And this becomes a very serious situation."
Holt believes solving this problem long-term requires a simple but elusive solution---increasing domestic energy supply. "Because of a failed federal energy policy in this country, all of us are paying too much," he says. "So those people saying no to energy infrastructure, and developing our own energy, and meeting our energy needs here at home...those are the folks we need to blame for our high energy prices today."