Sixty-four percent of Americans blame utilities “wanting to make money” as a major reason for surging home energy costs, according to a new poll.
The Pew Research Center survey shows rare agreement among Republicans and Democrats on energy in that members of both political parties consider utilities a primary culprit behind rising bills. The findings provide a snapshot of the public’s thinking heading into midterm elections, revealing significant regional differences on how voters experience energy inflation.
“Overall, three-quarters of U.S. adults say their home energy costs have gone up in recent years,” Pew said.
The pain is most prominent in the Northeast, where 56 percent of respondents said their home energy costs have gone up “a lot” over the past few years. That compares to 43 percent of Americans in the Midwest, 40 percent in the South and 36 percent in the West, the poll found.
