There is a pending energy issue looming just beyond the horizon that is going to become a major issue very soon. Electricity rates, natural gas costs and home heating oil prices increased massively due to Joe Biden energy policy. However, things are likely to get much worse in a few months.
On the issue of oil and gasoline prices, the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has dropped 40% since Joe Biden began using it to offset massive global prices increases in oil. However, Biden is doing nothing to increase production and has not engaged energy producers in conversation to expand domestic production. Non pretending warning HERE.
Ultimately what this means is another wave of sicky price increases for gasoline are coming fast.
Additionally, Mark Wolfe, director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), is warning that continued pressure on natural gas supplies by exporting U.S. production to Europe is going to make our electricity rates go even higher as more than 40% of U.S. electricity generated comes from the use of natural gas. Wolfe wrote a letter in October to Energy Secretary Granholm [SEE HERE], and the situation is unfolding exactly as he warned.
Electricity rates have jumped massively in the past year, and it looks like they are going to continue to rise. The spring and summer of 2023 looks to deliver another round of higher oil prices, higher natural gas prices, higher electricity prices and higher gasoline prices. Which brings me to the question…
It is challenging to find solid data (without noise) on regional electricity, home heating and natural gas prices. However, Treehouse readers consistently provide the most accurate assessments of reality on the ground. You guys are the experts in checkbook economics. So, I ask you the question:
How much have your electricity, natural gas and/or home heating costs increased in the past year?
Even though I am sparing in my usage, they, electric gas have doubled. I am a renter and that has gone up as well. I live in southeastern Massachusetts
Unfortunately, we are not a typical situation, being on hydroelectric. Our electric costs have gone down over the past year. That said, the price of firewood went from $225/cord to $250/cord. I don’t know how much that represents the general market because our supplier is one guy who makes money cutting and splitting wood from scrap trees.
Propane is stable at about $3 a gallon.
Forgot to add: central Idaho
Greetings from SE Idaho!
I would call that fortunate, not unfortunate.
Unfortunate in the sense that I can only contribute an outlier to this very worthwhile poll.
Pacific Northwest WA. I’m just going to say “ditto”, as our situation is identical to yours on costs and resources. (Our land is forested, so we don’t pay for the small amount of wood we need for fence repairs except with our own labor to harvest it.)
A dozen years ago when we moved here, the electricity was managed by a statewide company, and service was rock-solid. Two years later, our county voted to “localize” the ownership of utilities. All prices went down, and so did the quality of service. Now every time there’s significant wind, we get power outages, usually for 2-6 hours. Had to buy a back-up generator, run off the propane tank. The cost of the generator roughly equaled the savings we got on electricity costs over a five-year period. At least I got to learn more about generators. Am now thinking of constructing an “old school” type windmill to supplement our power needs. We are fortunate to have an available pool of cheap, skilled laborers, courtesy of the local school of boatbuilding.
You wouldn’t, by chance, live near Port Townsend? Lots of what you describe there. Generally speaking, though, wind won’t pay you back better than solar even in your cloudy area, unless you have the luxury of consistent sea breezes. My experience is with years of wind/solar supplements just east of Puyallup, near Buckley.
Yes, we are outside of Port Townsend a few miles, and yes, very near the water at one end of the property, so the wind off the sound is nearly always present. I’m retired and I like to indulge in home improvement projects.
We are watching Leo rebuild the Tally Ho, now in Pt. Townsend. Very fascinating YouTube series, if you hadn’t heard of it. 147 episodes so far, and he’s turned into an excellent video producer/editor, on top of being a master woodworker and boat builder.
(sorry, this is off-topic and nothing to do with utility rates)
Pacific NW too. Haven’t changed anything since a year ago like thermostat settings and my utility prices are nearly the same.
My rent has not increased because of longevity in house and relationship to homeowners. However, I’m stuck here. Can’t afford the going rent rates elsewhere.
Someone else said it best.
Those in this communist organized crime syndicate are all rat bastards!
They are worse than that given their secret practices.
Upstate NY National Grid customer = 35% on natural gas and 25% on electric.
Electric rates where I live in the South have gone up almost 20% since summer. We’ve had two rate increases. Natural gas, surprisingly, has not gone up much, if at all. Neither the electric company nor the gas company publishes the rate on the statement. Cowards.
Food is an entirely different story. I would say our food budget, overall, has gone up at least 15%!!
60% sharp increase since May ’22. So. IL.
Brenda. I’m in southern Illinois as well. Same thing. How are people going to decide between heat and food?
My natural gas bill has went from $40 a month to $106. Electricity is up 40%.
Looks like they plan on blaming the republicans.
Karine Jean-Pierre warns House Republicans want to raise gas prices: ‘She did not just say this’
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/karine-jean-pierre-warns-house-republicans-want-to-raise-gas-prices-she-did-not-just-say-this/ar-AA16GD4g
Are the red stripes a warning for the birds to stay clear? /s
Electric rates have held steady at .09 kwh in the free state of Wyoming. Propane for tank fills is steady also in the $2.50/ range. Biggest variable has been diesel fuel which bumped $.30 overnight and now sits at $4.39/. Even wood pellets have held pretty steady if you shop around (pallet for $235).
In the Uk Gas & Electricity up from £250 to £600 per month
Northwest Michigan gas $3.11 to $3.46; my budget plan electric $85.00 per month to $118.00; budget plan natural gas from $56.00 to $67.00. So far a warm winter and my use is down per the yearly chart.
Energy tripled.
Over 50% increase on natural gas here in central California
Combined water & power went from $900-1,000 every 2 months to
to over 2k. Los Angeles. Gas also doubled. In one year.
gave up my lawns years ago BTW
We got rid of the grass and layed down a bunch of pebbles for a “rock garden”, and not a fancy one either. Orange County, CA.
Las Vegas has banned grass for new homes and their water prices are soaring again this month, per The Prudent Homemaker, who lives their.
Heating Oil Cost to Me (Peoples Republic of Connecticut)
Jan 2020 1.95/gal
Jan 2021 2.75/gal
Jan 2022 3.14/gal
Jan 2023 4.14/gal
Between that cost and the planned Eversource Jan 23 doubling of KWH price, my home utility bills are costing me 600-700 more this month.
Close to the same here in Eastern PA.
PSEG of NJ
Dec 2021/Jan 2022
Gas supply: $0.363543 / therm
Gas delivery: $0.421689 / therm
Electricity supply: $0.121096 / kWh
Electricity delivery: $0.044167 / kWh
Dec 2022/Jan 2023
Gas supply: $0.651761 / therm (up 79%)
Gas delivery: $0.487543 (up 15.6%)
Electricity supply: $0.133127 / kWh (up 10%)
Electricity delivery: $0.045350 / kWh (up 2.7%)
Central Virginia – Natural Gas +27.5%, Electric +15.3%
Concur for electric but my nat gas a bit lower, 15 percent. I know there are at least two companies handling nat gas for the area.
Dallas suburbs here, My December gas bill was $157 this year, compared to $84 last year. December was colder this year, but still a good increase. Nat/Gas is down to $3, which is good after peaking in September at about $9.70. Demand is down driven by warmer weather.
Texas is unique, we have our own grid run by ERCOT, so not tied to a myriad of Fed mandates, but never underestimate the power of the idiots in Austin to F&%k things up.
If I recall from the big freeze/ power outage fiasco don’t most of ERCOT’s board members live outside the great state of Texas. That’s a big problem.
Not sure about that, but the big failure was they didn’t winterize legacy infrastructure, notably gas pipelines to the power plants, they froze up. ERCOT by no means is perfect, but Texas is prime for solar and wind farms, cause we have a lot of both. Some forget though, we have a hell of a lot of gas too.
Yes, most were out of Texas residents. Believe Abbott did change that. As to the freeze, the greens pushed the narrative that it was gas plants that were the problem. Yes, there were some plants and utilities that failed to do their job of winterizing. However, a significant about of the Texas grid is supplied by Wind turbines. During the freeze, wind contribution to the grid dropped to near ZERO – when I had problem, I was watching the ERCOT dashboard and personally observed the ZERO from wind during all the 10 days of arctic weather. That was and continues to the the real problem. Never believe the narratives. In this case, the narrative was gas plants were the problem.
Sundance, there’s a very important narrative we need to get out (to the radical environmentalist) so we can address real pollution in the world and not have our economy crashed with windmill and solar things that are not going to change anything on a global basis.
What I’m talking about is the horrible pollution coming out of China from the way it produces things in the most cheap and pollution heavy manufacturing way.
If you love the Earth (radical left losers) then why are you buying anything from China unless they change? With this anti-pollution China must change narrative, we can actually really reduce pollution (which does come to California), by not buying anything from China until they change. A simple high tarrif, surtax or additional cost to “pollution heavy” items is the solution. We could make the things here in the US if we did this correctly and the left would have to support this to “save” the planet.
In the short run, we can make things (great) again in America, because our expensive low pollution manufacturing would be the requirement for anything we import. This could be set up with some timeframe to allow China to change and benefit the United States in the meantime.
It’s is a critical question for the left, why are you ranting and raving about global warming and then buying anything from China? I thought you loved the planet! In addition to the use of slave labor, you are wrecking the planet, by buying things produced in China, which use very cheap, heavy pollution technology, to keep the prices down.
The masses of the Left do and believe what their masters tell them to. The masters are fully aware of the Chinese/India/Etc pollution issue, but their goal is to crash the West, not fix global pollution. That they ignore the dozens of studies that prove unequivocally that increased prosperity correlates to decreased pollution proves that ecological health is not their goal.
I don’t think we know yet. My elderly mother says the electric bill is fixed based at a monthly cost based on prior usage – so – we will not feel the pain until later when they readjust the monthly rate.
My gas budget doubled although I’m going into February with a credit-only because I’ve turned down the heat. Not looking forward to spring price jump.
My electric has gone up but I don’t know how much because I’m using a radiant space heater in the den while I watch tv. My electric is coal powered so it hasn’t seen much of a rise.
The question I have is how much has gas gone up bc ppl have turned down their furnace? Everyone I know has their temp set at or around 64(Midwest). I would think the gas companies are being squeezed both ways.
I’ve been monitoring my electricity bill since last Summer (don’t have natural gas nor heating oil).
Using comparisons based on same month and/or using bar graph provided by electric company to compare with same kw usage.
What I’ve noticed is an approximate 30-35% increase – NE Florida JEA.
In North Central Texas. For the entire year 2020, my electricity averaged $0.1035/kwh. Last month, my usage rate was $0.164/kwh – just a 58.5% increase.
$215.04 January/2022
$360.85 January/2023
I need a shocked face emoji
My total bills per month for electric, water, cell phones, internet, Part D premium and $130 in charitable donations are less than his next electric bill.
North Idaho….just went up 150%.
Our issue is Avista energy a Washington state company.
I am just south of you and also on Avista, and my rates have changed as follows:
12/30/22 bill: 0.08621 / kwh
12/30/21 bill: 0.08088 / kwh
Increase of 6.5%.
For perspective, the 12/30/20 bill was at 0.08584, and the 12/30/19 was 0.09427.
I don’t know what you are doing to cause it to increase by 150%. Perhaps you are comparing two bills with two different amounts of usage?
11% increase for gas and electric since this time last year.
$2.81 for .25 decatherms of natural gas per day used last December
This year .24 decatherms at a cost of $3.45
Yup usage went down but costs spiked
On Oahu, Hawaii electric rates in the past few years have varied from maybe .20/kWHr to .32. Then, last year they closed our coal-fired plant at command of state gov to meet Agenda 2030 goals. We have replaced with expensive solar contracts and increased use of oil-fired plants which supply base load. Current residential rates are .42 – .45 tiered based on monthly usage. So by quite a bit the highest rates ever. We are in what’s now sort of old-school house with many louvered windows so don’t have any A/C. Feel sorry for anyone in the newer developments like Kapolei that depend on A/C.
Gasoline has come down a bit from our high of $5.25/gal now around $4.50. We don’t have nat gas or home heating oil here.
Electric has moved from $0.13 to about $0.15 /kWh, SE Mass.
We have a town utility so we don’t have Eversource or other regional retailers to jack us w margins, which is nice.
Still will see $500-$600 bill for February unless Global warming kicks in, suddenly and unexpectedly.
A friend lives in North Attleboro which generates it’s own electricity but it’s gone up more than that for them
Eastern Washington here, our bill doubled since this time last year and we are on hydroelectric! We are just 2 living here and DH gone 9 hours 5 days at work, we need some heat up here in the north but I keep thermostat at 68 during the day, off at night. Just so maddening!
We worked hard all of our life so we could have a more comfortable life after kids are grown but that is not to be with these horrible agenda’s.
Thanks to good advice from Sundance, we invested in a natural gas generator and already had mostly gas appliances because we are blessed to have unlimited free natural gas under our ranch in Texas. Electricity has gone up about 15%, but we don’t use it except for heating. When it gets cold, we lite the fire and use our free gas and fire wood to keep warm. We listen to Sundance and are well-stocked and well-prepared for whatever comes. Thank you, Sundance. May God bless you and yours.
my gas bill doubled from last year
NICOR puts last year month’s cost right next to current month’s cost
24% year over year per kwh
Tuscarawas County Ohio
AEP
Jan 2022 = $0.12/kWh
May 2022=$0.15/kWh
That’s 3 cents per kWh jump.
Rate increase has stayed that way through Dec 2022.
At 1500 kWh for a month, the 12cents=$180
At 1500 kWh for a month, the 15cents=$225
That’s a $45/month increase at that usage level.
Has not gone up this year in NC but Duke just announced they will be requesting a rate increase that sounds like double or triple and claim they have not had an increase in 3 years. Electricity in NC is pricey. I am extremely frugal, do not heat during the night or when I go out for day…but I fear my next bill as we had that extreme cold around Christmas and I had to heat or freeze..plus I bought an aiar purifier and I have no idea how much that will cost to run.
Do you have a smart meter? If you do, you might be able to go to your account and see your energy usage by half hour or hour. Pick a time when you don’t have the heat, oven, washer, dryer or anything else big running and see how much you are using. Unless the air purifier is generating heat, I don’t think it will be that much.
Not looking for a debate on smart meters, just pointing out one useful aspect to them.
No, I don’t have one. The last bill I had used slightly more energy than last year…they show last year month compared to this year. I was surprised at that since it had been warmer than usual.
Thanks for the info on the air purifier. I have to run that as I seem to have developed an allergy in my bedroom….could be mold somewhere…I am in Western NC, temperate rain forest and I actually like to keep my humidity at 70% indoors as I used to live on the ocean and I cannot tolerate dry air. Anyway, mold thrives where I thrive I guess.
Mold allergies can make you sick enough to require surgery. Even if they don’t do that they sap your energy. Might want to find the source of the mold. Usually it is indicative of a leak in the plumbing, which unaddressed invariably worsens. I had mold growing under a bathroom sink, it had blackened the back of the cabinet, but I could not see it until I moved stuff out.
Southern Utah: we heat our home with natural gas and we use a natural gas fireplace and cooktop. In the last year (2/2022-2/2023) natural gas has gone up 27%. In the 3 year period from 2/2020-2/2023 natural gas has gone up 55%.
Our local electricity is produced by diesel and natural gas (we do get some electricity from other sources). In the period from 9/2021-9/2022 electricity has gone up 15%. In the 2 year period from 9/2020-9/2022 electricity has gone up 19.5%. So, a 4% increase from 2020-2021, and an additional 15.5% increase from 2021-2022.
I live in the desert. Last fall/winter was cold but this fall/winter is freezing – constantly. One day in October I was running around in shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops. The very next day I was in long pants, socks, and a hoodie trying to keep warm. I’m still trying to keep warm. Damn global warming, rain bombs, and boiling oceans. Grrrrrr.
Sold my house in CT just in time- Eversource increased electricity there by 48%.
gas up 400% year over year for the month of January ($125 to over $500). We are in Orange County, California. Electricity is probably 200%
From memory, my October electric bill was around $38. November $75. December $72.
Note I was out of the country the last two weeks of December and turned all my heating and appliances off before leaving.
Vancouver Washington USA
Both have doubled.
California – PG&E gas.
Sacramento Municipal Utilities District – Electric.
Joe and Kamala just recorded a circle-jerk this weekend extolling their 2-year accomplishments and how great YOU have it. Keep this in mind as you read the comments here and decide if you can also afford eggs this week.
I have an experiment on storing eggs running. I bathed some store bought eggs in mineral oil in Dec 2022. Will try a couple in July, more next December and see if they are edible July 2024. Messy, but if I can keep a few dozen eggs over a year, then, I will reduce my costs going forward. If one has chickens, the water glassing works but I’d start with one to 2 gallon containers because just one shove can break an egg and mess it up.
Our price per kWh has gone up about 20% over the past 2 years.
My last electric bill was $300. The one before that was $170. Used approximately the same amount of electricity.
I’m in Georgia and all electric. Costs went up this summer, but my bill has actually been slightly lower than usual this winter.
Southern California
My natural gas bill has gone from $25.00/month to $120.00/month.
My electric bill has gone from $70.00/mo to $180.00
We are probably using more of each because it is “winter” in SoCal, but I have never had gas bills this high no matter how much we were using.
Southern Cal too. Electric more than doubled. And I’m just soooo cold all the time this winter
PG&E was greedy even in the late 1970s.
Heating oil up 40%–over $1000/month and we keep our thermostat no higher than 65.
Electricity up 25%.
Gas and electric have gone up but I really don’t look at it in detail. What am I going to do about it anyway? It’s not like I can switch to a different provider. I try to keep my usage down and my house is insulated well so why sweat over something I can’t do much about.
An example of frustration with this is the new “smart” meter that is coming. They say they want all meters to communicate without having someone go out and read them. Well, I’ve got one of those. I have what is called an AMR meter which is only a few years old and has one way communication and no reader required.
Supposedly the smart meter allows me to use energy at 2am which is cheaper than 4pm. I asked them what will happen if everybody switches from peak usage to off peak, wouldn’t that just create a different time for peak usage? Can’t watch the TV or use the lights or run the furnace or use my woodshop or use an electric range/oven at 2am!
My choices are the smart meter or a $40 charge to install a NON-communicating meter that requires a reader and $15 a month. I asked them if that made sense to take out a communicating meter and put in a NONc just so they can charge me more? They claimed the state requested it this way and the state claims Xcel wanted it this way, to save money and energy.
Well, meters don’t save energy and if they replace all the meters of lets say 4 million people in MN, it has to cost at least a 100 bucks each, so that comes to $400,000,000 that could be spent on needed things rather than replacing perfectly good meters.
What a joke. These meters are meant to punish us and nag us about “high power use, please stop!” and it looks like I don’t have a choice to just keep my meter as is. I plan to give them false phone numbers and false email when that meter comes in. Lock your digital doors.
Central Oregon: last summer I got a promo piece from the electric people “praising” me for having such low electric usage….and offering me the opportunity to engage in a “green” program they are spending money on by allowing them to add a surcharge to my current bill. Apparently, it didn’t occur to them to consider why my electric usage is lower than average.
Nat gas expenditure up 25%, with reduced usage. Electricity up about 20%, with reduced usage. I see frequent yelling on the Nextdoor propaganda site from neighbors claiming their gas and electric, each, are up 100-200%. I haven’t been able to figure out if they are too stupid to read their bills and understand the (notified) increases (we were notified of increases of 14%) or if they are too clueless to govern their usage, at all. I don’t really care, either…come to think of it.
I was 8 years old when Dwight Eisenhower was elected to his first term. On our great big country school bus in eastern Montana the morning after the election (I’m so old that I remember when votes were counted and nationwide results delivered by 1-2 am) my democrat-family cousin (obviously regurgitating what she was hearing at home) was whining and accusing and complaining that “We won’t be able to have Christmas this year because Eisenhower was elected”.
In a completely childlike effort, I wrote out a paragraph on a sheet of paper from my Big Chief tablet…quoting what she had said and suggesting to myself that we should maybe invite them to our house for Christmas because I knew we would have presents. Up until a few years ago, I still had that piece of paper and would come across it ocasionally.
I tell that little story to underscore that leftists are miserable people. They have always been miserable. They will also continue to be miserable. I learned very early in life to have as little to do with them as possible. Their accusations against others combined with extreme fearfulness for their own welfare thrives on their own misery and plants more misery. They’ve chosen a tough way to live.
Perceptive and wise words Sharon.
Central Virginia here, up approximately 15% electric. Propane/heatpump/wood stove heat. Propane up, will calculate in June.
Increased firewood use, (our woodlot) this winter. Planning my own hydroelectric system which is more involved than initially thought.
Here in my area of Pinal County, Arizona we are an all electric home community serviced by Arizona Public Service (APS). APS sent out a note with our December 2022 bill that they have put in a request to the Arizona Corporation Commission for a rate hike that would take effect in the fall of 2023.
We are in an electric co-op and kilowatt hour is pretty steady. DelMarva coast
Natural gas though is up 35-40%