By Samantha Chang |The Western Journal
“We expect that households across the United States will
spend more on energy this winter compared with the past several winters because
of these higher energy prices and because we assume a slightly colder winter
than last year in much of the United States,” the U.S. Energy Information
Administration wrote in an alarming
report Wednesday.
The EIA, which is the statistical arm of the Biden
administration’s Department of Energy, said prices for all fuels will be higher
this winter than in previous years, and those costs will be passed down to
consumers.
“On average across the United States, we expect prices
for all fuels to be higher than in recent winters,” the EIA wrote.
“Rising wholesale commodity prices for natural gas, crude
oil, and petroleum products are being passed through to retail prices.”
Rocketing energy prices aren’t surprising after President
Joe Biden undercut America’s oil independence by stopping construction of
the Keystone XL Pipeline and halting new oil and gas leases on public lands.
This was part of a sweeping initiative to make climate
change a focal point of his administration’s domestic and foreign policies.
So far, all it did was erode the nation’s energy independence, eliminate
energy-sector jobs and set the stage for higher utility costs for all
Americans, including sky-high gas prices. That’s what we’re seeing now.
The EIA report said Americans will be impacted by steep
energy prices regardless of which fuel source they use to heat their homes.
- “We
forecast that households in [the South, Northeast and the Midwest] will
spend $631 (54%) more on average for propane this winter compared with
last winter.”
- “We
expect households that use natural gas as their primary space heating fuel
will spend $746 this winter, 30% more than they spent last winter.”
- “We
expect that households heating with propane in the Northeast will spend an
average of $2,012, which would be 47% more than last winter.”
- “We
forecast that U.S. households that heat primarily with electricity will
spend an average of $1,268 this winter on their electricity bills, which
is 6% more than last winter.”
Naturally, these heating costs will be even higher if the
winter is colder than expected: Propane users would see a 94 percent price
increase, according to the EIA.
It will be unspeakably tragic if people freeze to death because they can’t afford to pay their
sky-high heating bills.
Biden and the Democratic Party claim to champion the
middle class and low-income groups, but those are the people who are being hurt
the most by surging energy prices and rampant inflation.
Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy
Assistance Directors’ Association, said the poorest Americans will suffer the
most.
“This is going to create significant hardship for people
in the bottom third of the country,” Wolfe told The Associated Press. “You can tell them to cut back and
try to turn down the heat at night, but many low-income families already do
that. Energy was already unaffordable to them.”
Carol Hardison is the CEO of Crisis Assistance Ministry,
which helps poor people in Charlotte, North Carolina.
She agreed that surging
consumer prices will hurt low-income Americans the most.
-----
TWEET
Heather
Long
@byHeatherLong
Where are Americans seeing
inflation? A lot of places:
Rental cars +43% over last
Sept
Gas 42% Used cars 24%
Bacon 19%
Hotels 18%
Beef 18%
Pork 13%
Eggs 13%
TVs 13%
Kids' shoes 12%
Furniture 11%
New cars 9%
Chicken 8%
Apples 8%
Restaurant prices: 5%
Electricity 5%
Rent 2.9%
---
Hardison told the AP that
households seeking her group’s assistance this year have unpaid bills that are
twice as high as they were a year ago.
While Americans are
buckling under the weight of our cratering economy, Biden’s top priorities
appear to be mass-importing unvetted armies of illegal aliens
and stoking race wars.
_______________
Samantha Chang is a politics writer, lawyer and
financial editor based in New York City.
https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-admin-alerts-americans-going-paying-54-want-heat-winter/
