Hotter temperatures and higher electricity bills could prove dangerous and even fatal this summer, warns a new forecast from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.
The cost to cool a home between June and September is projected to average $778 — or 8.5 percent higher than last year and 37 percent higher than in 2020, according to the association’s analysis. That could rise to more than $900 in Southern states.
“Summer cooling is becoming less and less affordable even as it is becoming more and more needed,” NEADA Executive Director Mark Wolfe said in an interview. “It makes you worry about the people who cannot afford this, who try to do without and end up in the hospital with heat stroke or kidney failure.”
The association consists of state and local officials who administer federal grants and other funding to low-income families to help with heating and cooling costs. The analysis was based on electricity costs, which have broadly been rising faster than inflation, and expected extreme heat, which could be more intense this summer than previous ones thanks to a nascent El Niño event.
