Can you imagine? In the United States, the most developed country in the world, 20 million households are in arrears with their electricity bills. Many of the remaining households are suffering from the rapidly rising electricity prices. Why did the United States, which used to have abundant energy, end up in such a miserable state today? Faced with the skyrocketing prices of various energy sources, what should ordinary people in the United States do?
One to 20 million households have become "electricity bill laggards"
In the past two months, the prices of various energy sources in the United States have been rising steadily. Coupled with the raging extreme high temperature weather and the surge in residents' electricity demand, the price of electricity in the United States rose sharply in July, by as much as 15%. Natural gas prices are even more outrageous, rising by 150% in the first seven months of this year alone. Apportioned to each household, the cost of electricity has increased by 30% to 50% compared with previous years.
After receiving their bills, many families discovered that the electricity bills in summer were hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The rise in prices brought about by inflation has already made people's lives miserable. Now electricity bills have also tripled, making it even more difficult for people to accept it. According to data released by an authoritative organization, more than 20 million American households across the United States are currently in arrears with their electricity bills, setting a record high.
And this is just a microcosm of the US energy crisis. Affected by various factors, more than 16 billion US dollars in utility bills across the United States were overdue in the first half of the year, double the amount in 2019. Many American people are forced to make choices between housing bills, water and electricity bills, and food bills, and there are even absurd scenes of borrowing loan sharks to buy gasoline.
This energy crisis has actually been known for a long time. In early March this year, the American energy giant Pacific Gas and Electric raised its electricity prices by 9%. Now the situation is even worse. Not only are a large number of electricity bill grievances suffering from power outages, but many public utilities have also begun to cut off power frequently. Although 80% of households will regain power within a few days, the remaining large arrears will be "exiled" by power company .
2. Two major reasons lead to the deterioration of the situation
The situation of large-scale arrears in electricity bills mainly comes from two aspects. The most important one is the international dispute that started at the beginning of the year. In the past decade, as the United States has succeeded in the shale revolution, the country has obtained a large amount of cheap oil and natural gas energy. At the same time, breakthroughs in clean energy technologies such as photovoltaics and wind power have also further reduced the cost of electricity.
Affected by these two aspects, the U.S. electricity market has abandoned the two traditional power generation methods of nuclear power and thermal power since 2016, and has turned to natural gas power generation to temporarily carry the banner of domestic power generation in the United States. This pattern will continue until wind power and photovoltaic technologies mature and replace natural gas power generation. However, the outbreak of international disputes shattered the only bridge leading to the future of the U.S. electricity market.
Before this year, EU countries relied on Russian supplies for more than 40% of their natural gas. However, since the dispute at the beginning of the year, the total amount of natural gas transported from Russia to Europe has dropped sharply by 75%, which has caused the price of natural gas in Europe to increase nearly five times compared with the same period last year. At the same time, the United States’ natural gas exports to Europe surged by 12% in the first half of the year, becoming the world’s largest natural gas exporter.
The surge in exports has led to a rapid expansion of the natural gas gap in the United States, and natural gas prices have soared by 150%, indirectly pushing up power generation costs and electricity prices. Another reason is the completely commercialized environment of the U.S. power system. The major power operators that now control the US power infrastructure are all private companies that are not subject to government regulation.
Therefore, when the domestic supply and demand relationship is tense, not only will they not "deliver electricity to the people" like China Power Grid did during the high temperature in Sichuan, instead, they will take advantage of the skyrocketing cost of power generation to raise the price of electricity, causing more people to They were forced to default on their electricity bills and were cut off as a result.
3. The future prospects of the American people are worrying
What is even worse is that the consequences of the collective default of the American people on their electricity bills may have just begun. Because relevant agencies regulate electricity prices, power companies often do not immediately pass on soaring fuel costs directly to consumers. Therefore, this wave of collective default on electricity bills is probably just the beginning.
If this continues, residents’ electricity bill burden will continue to increase. At that time, they may also face the dilemma of having their cars or houses forcibly expropriated by the bank because they are unable to repay other debts, and become homeless wanderers. In response to this situation, the U.S. government has launched a low-income household energy assistance program to provide certain subsidies, but the amount and scale of this subsidy are very limited.
Therefore, various state governments have also launched a series of relief measures. The California government passed a budget some time ago, which is expected to provide $1.4 billion to help residents repay utility debts such as water and electricity bills. However, this kind of approach of simmering things down and stopping the boiling water will hardly change the increasingly difficult life prospects of the American people.
Conclusion:
The incident of American residents defaulting on their electricity bills stems from the energy crisis caused by international disputes, but it is also closely related to the complete commercialization of American power companies. If American companies blindly pursue profits, similar things will happen again in the future. Do you think the American people can survive this electricity bill crisis? Everyone is welcome to leave a message below the comment area. If you like our articles, please click "Follow" to get useful information at any time.
