About 1 in 5 Americans have cut back on groceries or considered buying less expensive food to afford their electricity bills, while about 1 in 4 have reduced heating or air conditioning to uncomfortable levels or considered doing so, according to a new Consumer Reports survey.
The findings highlight the financial trade-offs households are making as electricity costs rise, with some consumers also cutting back on nonessential spending, including eating out and traveling.
The nationally representative survey of 2,003 U.S. adults found that 81% of Americans who have lived in the same home for at least three years said their electricity bills had increased during that time. More than a quarter, 28%, reported increases of 20% to 49%.
Among respondents
whose bills increased, about 3 in 4 said the higher costs strained their household finances, Consumer Reports found. People with annual household incomes below $85,000 were more than twice as likely as those with higher incomes to say the increases strained their finances a lot.
Rising electricity costs are adding to broader affordability concerns as Americans also face higher gasoline and diesel prices amid increased oil costs linked to the war in Iran. The financial pressures come just weeks before the midterm elections, with cost of living, heathcare, food prices, gasoline costs and food and housing as the top household expenses that voters want lawmakers should address, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.
“We're hearing a lot of folks who don't know what they can possibly do to afford rising rates,” Sara Enright, senior director of safety and energy at Consumer Reports, told CBS News.
What is driving higher electricity bills?
Survey respondents most commonly pointed to utility company profits as a factor affecting their electricity costs, with 45% identifying them as a contributor.
Other frequently cited factors included increased electricity demand from data centers and artificial intelligence systems (38%), fluctuating fossil fuel prices (37%) and the cost of updating and repairing energy infrastructure (36%).
Americans also expressed skepticism about utility oversight. About three-quarters of respondents said they trust state utility regulators only a little or not at all to protect their interests. Just 1% said they trust regulators completely.
“Americans are being asked to foot the bill for costs they didn't create and can't control,” Enright said in a Consumer Reports statement. “This survey shows people see through that. They want the costs and risks to stay with the corporate entities that create them, not residential customers.”
How can consumers get help with electricity bills?
Consumer Reports has launched Power Smarter, an initiative to help households understand their energy costs and advocate for more affordable rates.
The initiative includes the free CR Bill Decoder, which allows consumers to submit electricity bills to find state-specific financial assistance programs, potential ways to reduce costs and explanations of billing terms, rates and fees.
Consumer Reports will also use anonymized bill information to identify price trends and investigate factors contributing to electricity costs.
Understanding those bills can be a challenge. Among Americans who read their electricity bills, 38% said they found them somewhat or very difficult to understand, according to the survey.
The survey also found that 84% of respondents supported creating a separate electricity rate category for large users such as data centers. Half of the survey respondents said data centers should pay all infrastructure costs for projects built primarily to serve them, while another 39% said they should pay more of those costs than other customers.
Reporter Anthony Thompson can be reached at ajthompson@usatodayco.com, or on X @athompsonUSAT
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Electricity bills force 1 in 5 Americans to cut grocery costs
