Many Americans have to choose between food and energy bills

Charlotte, NC – During the heat wave that engulfed much of the Southeast in June, Stacey Freeman used the windows to cool her poorly insulated home in Fayetteville, North Carolina. During the winter, the 44-year-old mother relied on space heaters.

In both cases, his electricity bills ran into the hundreds of dollars a month.

“Sometimes I have to choose whether I’m going to pay the light bill,” Freeman said, “or do I pay all the rent or buy food or not let my son play?”

As PowerUp NC’s regional field organizer, Freeman’s mission is to help people improve the climate in their homes, especially in the Sandhills, where he lives and works, where poverty and rising temperatures make citizens are vulnerable. health effects of climate change.

But Freeman’s salary is too high to benefit from the services he helps others get from basic support, clean energy and clean energy. environmental justice effort.

Like a growing number of Americans, Freeman struggles with what is known as energy poverty, including the inability to buy equipment heating or cooling the home. Households that spend more than 6% of their income on electricity bills do not have energy, some researchers suggest.

Energy poverty can increase a person’s exposure to extreme heat or cold, which increases the risk of respiratory problems, heart problems, allergies, kidney problems and other health conditions. And the burden falls disproportionately on families of color, who have it at a 60% higher rate than those in white communities.

Public health and environmental experts say that as climate change continues to cause extreme weather events, more policy efforts are needed to help vulnerable communities, especially during hurricanes. temperature.

“Energy poverty is just one example of how climate change can exacerbate existing inequalities in our communities,” said Summer Tonizzo, spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Extreme heat is no. 1 cause of climate-related diseases in the US, the risk increases as temperatures rise. Last year, 2,302 people in the US died from heat-related causes, a 44% increase from 2021. In one week in early July this year, extreme heat killed at least 28, according to The Washington Post, based on national records. officers, medical examinations, and local news reports.

However, 1 in 7 households spends about 14% of their income on energy, according to RMI, an energy think tank and practice. Nationwide, 16% of households are in extreme poverty, concluded an analysis written by Noah Kittner, assistant professor of public health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

“Old, inefficient buildings and heating systems are causing people to meet their energy needs in ways that increase costs,” Kittner said.

Pregnant women, people with heart or lung conditions, young children, the elderly, and working people or outdoor exercise is too dangerous for related to temperature health problems. High temperatures are also associated with mental health issues such as suicide and severe depression.

Location is another risk factor. For example, in Raleigh’s historically black neighborhood, known as the Method, temperatures can be 10 to 20 degrees hotter than nearby areas with more vegetation and less development. said La’Meshia Whittington, an environmental justice and clean energy advocate. Interstate 440 runs through Method, and the city maintains shuttle buses there, usually with working engines.

“That causes a lot of pollution warming the environment“Whittington said. “There is no country to water the heat. Instead, it breaks the shingles, the roof, the pavement and makes the stove. “

He said that Method residents often complain of chronic headaches and breathing problems.

Although rural areas tend to have lower temperatures than nearby urban areas because they have less asphalt and more trees, they often lack infrastructure, such as health care facilities and cooling facilities. . Unstable housing and high poverty rates contribute to high rates of heat-related illness.

Energy poverty “is placing burdens without a way, at the individual level, to combat those burdens,” said Ashley Ward, director of the Heat Policy Innovation Hub at Duke University.

In many parts of the country, extreme heat is a new concern. Policy makers have been focusing on the threats of extreme temperatures.

The Federal Government’s Local Energy Assistance Program, established more than four decades ago, has a budget that favors cold climates over extreme heat, according to research from Georgetown University. Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Texas, and Nevada have the lowest shares of federal funds, while North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska have the highest.

North Carolina relies heavily on private donors and local nonprofits, such as PowerUp, to distribute fans and air conditioning units in the summer, but the state does not contribute to the cost of energy bills.

On extremely hot days, Freeman and his colleagues at PowerUp NC work with state health officials to direct vulnerable people to recovery centers.

On a personal level, staying cool this summer meant sending her son to a free, open-air recreation center instead of paying for him to join a sports league.

He said: “We do things that don’t cost money. “Just trying to keep up with the electricity bill.”

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