As energy bills rise, low-income Americans are fighting for access to clean energy

Cindy Camp is one of many Americans facing rising energy costs. Ms. Camp, who lives in Baltimore with three relatives, said her gas and electric bills were “going up and up” — as much as $900 a month. Her family has tried to use less hot water by doing less laundry, and she now eats more fast food to save on groceries.

Mrs Camp would like to save money on energy bills by switching to more energy-efficient appliances such as a heat pump and solar panels. But she simply can’t afford it.

“It’s a struggle for me to even get food,” Ms. Camp said.

Energy bills have increased nationallyand in Baltimore, electricity rates have increased by almost 30 percent according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While clean energy systems and more efficient appliances can help low-income households mitigate some of these increases, many households face barriers to accessing these products.

Low-income households are slower to adopt clean energy because they often do not have sufficient savings or have low credit scores, which can hinder their credit score possibility to finance projects. Some have also found it difficult to navigate federal and state programs that would make installations more affordable, and many are renters who cannot make upgrades themselves.

Energy costs have traditionally been a greater burden for low-income households, who typically spend a much larger percentage of their gross income on utility bills than higher-income households. the Energy Department said. Many also live in older, less efficient homes, which can lead to diabetes more expensive energy bills. In 2020, 34 million U.S. households, or 27 percent of all households, reported difficulty paying their energy bills or keeping their home at an unsafe temperature due to concerns about energy costs. according to the Energy Information Administration.

The Biden administration has deployed a series of programs to increase access to clean energy lower energy bills for households. The efforts are part of a broader effort to reduce carbon emissions in response to climate change, which is often disproportionately affected disadvantaged communities.

This includes discounts for energy-efficient appliances and tax credits for the purchase of solar panels and electric cars. In recent months, government officials have awarded awards financing for energy efficiency upgrades in federally subsidized housing. The federal government will also make an offer bonus tax credits for clean energy investments in low-income areas and billions to expand access to residential solar energy.

In remarks Wednesday about the administration’s efforts to make energy more affordable, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said the policy could “immediately” help lower energy bills for lower- and middle-income families. She said they are also strengthening domestic production of clean energy, which would reduce costs over time.

“This will make clean energy even more affordable for American consumers,” Ms. Yellen said at a community college in Boston.

Still, some advocates said it would be a challenge for the government’s investments to reach low-income communities.

“To me, the problems for people in Baltimore and inner cities around the world are identical: ‘We’re struggling to pay our bills now,’” said Kristal Hartsfield, the CEO of the National Alliance for Equity in Energy and Infrastructure, which organizations connects communities and businesses on issues related to changes in the energy sector. “We cannot switch to clean energy tomorrow.”

Although White House officials said they were providing technical assistance to help people access new programs, many seeking to take advantage of federal and state programs said they often faced a major hurdle: paperwork.

Ms. Camp, 56, lives in a single-family home in a northeast Baltimore neighborhood where she has never seen a solar panel on a house or residents with electric vehicles. Still, she wants solar power and a heat pump – if she can navigate the depths of the application process.

“It’s really disheartening,” said Ms. Camp, an AmeriCorps member. “The red tape is so thick.”

Patricia Johnson, 68, a retired machine operator who lives with her husband in East Baltimore, said her home’s heating system was more than 20 years old and needed repairs, but she couldn’t afford to pay $10,000 to $15,000 to replace the system.

Ms. Johnson said she had a hard time figuring out which assistance programs she qualified for, so she went to a nearby community center run by GEDCO, a local nonprofit. Ms. Johnson later learned she qualified for a state program that funds energy efficiency upgrades, but it was still difficult to navigate the paperwork and she would not have applied without guidance.

Laurel Peltier, president of the Maryland Energy Advocates Coalition and a GEDCO volunteer who worked with Ms. Johnson, said most of the people she helped did not have computers or printers, which made it harder for them to sign up and learn about the available programs.

“Government agencies still have a lot of work to do to effectively distribute programs to low-income people,” Ms. Peltier said.

The nation’s largest municipal utility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; the National Laboratory for Renewable Energy; and the University of California, Los Angeles, recently published the first comprehensive study on some of the impacts of the energy transition on low-income consumers. The study highlighted the growing inequality in Los Angeles between those who can afford clean energy upgrades and those who cannot.

Part of the reality, as Los Angeles recognized in its study and as some energy experts have argued, is that there is a need to educate the public about energy issues and how to transition to clean energy technologies and find the incentives available.

Experts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory say the energy transition will require broad participation from utilities and energy providers, as well as low-income and wealthier Americans. That means more needs to be done to include those who can least afford it.

While many of the new rebates are generous, they still may not cover the full price tag of clean energy products, said Diana Hernandez, associate professor of socio-medical sciences and co-director of the Energy Opportunity Lab at the Columbia Center on Global Energy. Policy. The cost of heat pumps, which can heat and cool homes more efficiently than typical furnaces and air conditioners, varies, but an average installation costs $16,000. The new rebates, which are not yet available, would only save those systems up to $8,000.

Tax credits can do that coverage of 30 percent of the costs for installing solar panels. But many low-income people don’t owe enough taxes to take full advantage, and the average cost of a residential solar system is about $25,000This is reported by the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Low-income households may be less likely to make these upgrades if they are already struggling to afford necessary expenses, and many are also renters who will find it more difficult to take advantage of the new programs because landlords may not have incentives to drive efficiencies to make upgrades, says Ms. Hernández said.

However, she noted that people could subscribe to some of the energy generated by “community solar” projects, which are off-site solar systems, or by leasing panels.

After conducting this study, Los Angeles increased rebates for used electric vehicles to as much as $4,000, from a maximum of $2,500 for qualified consumers. And the city said it would build and operate its own fast-charging network in low-income communities.

Without such efforts, experts say the energy transition will only work against those who can least afford to participate.

“We’re still figuring out this energy transition,” said Stephanie Pincetl, a professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and director of the university’s California Center for Sustainable Communities, who participated in the Los Angeles study. “We have to get this right, otherwise it will only increase inequality.”