Home Energy Costs
“Energy burden” refers to the percentage of household income spent on utilities.¹ As shown in Figure 5.1, low-income, black, and renting households in St. Louis face significantly higher energy burdens than the St. Louis population at large.²
FIGURE 5.1: MEDIAN ENERGY BURDENS OF LOW-INCOME, BLACK, AND RENTING HOUSEHOLDS IN ST. LOUIS COMPARED TO THE CITYWIDE MEDIAN³
In addition, nearly 52% of low-income households and 46% of black households in St. Louis face energy burdens that are more than twice the citywide median.⁴ These disproportionate burdens are reflected nationwide. Across the country, about one-half of all low-income households and about one-half of all black households have trouble paying energy bills or maintaining adequate heating and cooling.⁵ Of the 48 largest cities in the United States, St. Louis places the 6th highest energy burden on black households.⁶
Poor housing quality, which includes energy inefficiency, contributes to these high energy burdens. Low-income, renting, black, and Latino households pay above-average energy costs per square foot due to less-efficient housing.⁷ Inefficient—and therefore needlessly costly—energy use is caused by poor insulation, air leaks, and old or inefficient heating and cooling systems and appliances.⁸ When tenants pay for utilities, landlords lack financial incentives to provide newer, more efficient appliances or to invest in improvements such as better insulation.⁹ Additionally, low income homeowners cannot afford to upgrade their homes and make them more efficient—an investment that pays off down the road but requires an upfront payment.¹⁰
These disparities exist despite several programs aimed at alleviating the energy burden on low-income households. The federal government’s Weatherization Assistance Program provides services such as installing insulation, sealing and repairing ducts, and tuning and repairing heating and cooling units.¹¹ These upgrades can reduce the cost of fuel, electricity, and/or natural gas by upwards of 25 percent per dwelling.¹² Eligibility for this program is based on income; for example, a four-person household is eligible with an annual income of no more than $49,200.¹³ The State of Missouri also provides limited bill-paying assistance to low-income households through the federally-funded Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.¹⁴ The program pays a maximum of $300 from June to September and $800 from November to May.¹⁵ However, the funding only reaches 20-25% of eligible households.¹⁶ In addition, Ameren offers rebates and home energy audits for home energy efficiency upgrades for qualifying customers.¹⁷,¹⁸ There is also some bill support funded by Ameren’s ratepayers.¹⁹
However, these programs are not protecting low-income households from crushing energy costs. For example, funds in the state’s Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program fell $23 million short of ensuring that St. Louisans living 50% below the poverty level could afford their energy bills in 2018.²⁰
The Many Costs of High Energy Burdens
When utility bills take a large share of one’s income, some people cut back on basic necessities like food and medicine.²¹ People also cut back on heating and cooling, keeping their homes too cold in the winter or too hot in the summer to be healthy or safe.²² Some lose heating and cooling completely when the utility cuts off service or equipment breaks and the household cannot get it fixed.²³
Kaliah West: “I wonder why it costs so much...They give us a graph on our bill but we don’t understand that stuff.”
Kaliah West and her daughter moved into an apartment in November, only to discover that the heat was not working. Her landlord was unresponsive, not bothering to fix the heating until February. In the interim, she and her daughter coped by using their oven to warm the home, receiving electricity bills that sometimes were over $600, money that Kaliah did not have. The electric companies were unsympathetic. Extensions are hard to come by. When Kaliah called her electric company, she was met with little help and told to borrow the money if she had to.
“The way they treated me was just awful. They know my background. They know I have a felony. They know my credit isn’t good. And so they think they can get away with not dealing with issues.”
That summer, Kaliah discovered that the A/C also was not working, though that was fixed after two or three weeks. When it got cold again the following fall, the heat again stopped working and was never fixed. Kaliah has a lawsuit pending against her landlord.
A Southside Resident Struggles with High Energy Bills
Three months after moving into her new apartment, a South Side resident’s electric bills suddenly increased to four or five times their previous levels. She called her electric company to ask them to check the meter. The company would not come out unless invited by the landlord and the landlord would not agree. Although rent for her four-bedroom apartment is $700, her electric bills are frequently as high as $500-$700 each month, with occasional “low” bills in the $200-$300 range. Although she has found partial bill assistance through charitable organizations and reduces her use of electricity to the absolute minimum – sometimes avoiding using the stove or oven to cook meals for her family – she continues to receive extremely high electric bills. Her landlord and electric company are not willing or able to correct the issue.
References
¹ Ariel Drehobl and Lauren Ross, Lifting the High Energy Burden in America’s Largest Cities: How Energy Efficiency Can Improve Low Income and Underserved Communities, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (Apr. 2016), p. 8, available for download at https://aceee.org/research-report/u1602 (“Lifting the High Energy Burden”).
² Id., p. 48.
³ Prepared by the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic. Data Source: Lifting the High Energy Burden, pp. 47-49.
⁴ Lifting the High Energy Burden, p. 50.
⁵ Energy Information Administration (EIA), One in three U.S. households faced challenges in paying energy bills in 2015, available at https://www.eia.gov/consumption/residential/reports/2015/energybills/.
⁶ Lifting the High Energy Burden, p. 19.
⁷ Id., p. 4.
⁸ Id., pp. 11-12.
⁹ Id., p. 12.
¹⁰ Id.
¹¹ U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Q&A: The Weatherization Assistance Program (Oct. 29, 2013), available at www.energy.gov/eere/articles/qa-weatherization-assistance-program.
¹² Benefits.gov, Missouri Weatherization Assistance Program, available at www.benefits.gov/benefit/1864.
¹³ Id.
¹⁴ Missouri Department of Social Services, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, available at https://dss.mo.gov/fsd/energy-assistance/.
¹⁵ Id.
¹⁶ Lifting the High Energy Burden, p. 27.
¹⁷ Ameren Missouri, Residential Energy Efficiency Programs, available at https://www.amerenmissourisavings.com/.
¹⁸ Ameren Missouri, Ameren Missouri CommunitySavers Programs, available at https://www.amerenmissourisavings.com/communitysavers.
¹⁹ Ratepayer-funded bill support options can be found at http://dollarmore.ameren.com/.
²⁰ Fisher, Sheehan & Colton, Home Energy Affordability Gap, Current Year Affordability Gap Data for Missouri, available at www.homeenergyaffordabilitygap.com/03a_affordabilityData.html.
²¹ EIA, One in three U.S. households faced challenges in paying energy bills in 2015, available at https://www.eia.gov/consumption/residential/reports/2015/energybills/
²² Id.
²³ Id.