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A record hot summer collided unhappily with rising energy costs for households across the US that struggled to the point where many were disconnected from their electricity supply, even as dangerous heat baked their communities. In July, the hottest month ever recorded in the US , 173,598 households were shut off from their electric supply by utilities across 10 states, figures provided to the Guardian show. This snapshot of American life points to a worsening problem, with the rate of electricity disconnections surging 28% compared to July 2024.
Even as three separate “heat dome” events scorched the US in July, probably worsened by global heating caused by the burning of fossil fuels, many people were rationing their use of air conditioning and other appliances or lost use of them entirely by being cut off for non-payment. “We have been hearing from so many people angry and desperate because their bills have doubled – temperatures are going up and so are the costs,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA). “People now are cutting back on food or medicine or resorting to payday lenders because you need to get the power back on.
The protections in place aren’t working, it’s just cruel. Poorer people and older people aren’t turning on the AC because of the cost and when you get back-to-back heatwaves they may die because of that.” A bar chart showing July utility shut-offs have gone up over 28% in just two years across 10 states Not all states require utilities to report shut-off figures, but NEADA was able to compile data from 10 states, including New York, Georgia, California and Illinois. The true level of disconnections nationally is far higher – the federal government reported 13.4m household shut-offs in 2024, with rates particularly high in southern states including Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
About one in six US households are now behind on their energy bills, putting them at potential risk of being cut off, NEADA estimates. This risk varies by state – 23 states and Washington DC have rules preventing electricity disconnections when the heat rises above a certain threshold, meaning the remaining 27 states allow shut-offs regardless of the weather. “Most people do manage to find some way to pay the bill and get reconnected, but the core problem is that electricity prices are continuing to rise faster than overall inflation,” said Wolfe.
The crunch of extreme heat and ballooning bills resulted in a fraught summer for many Americans. Carol Norman, a 70-year-old who lives in the town of Tom Bean, Texas, said her utility bills soared to about $600 a month, mostly due to air conditioning. She now just uses bursts of air conditioning in one room despite barely venturing outside over summer because of the heat.
“A couple of times I walked to the grocery store before it got too hot but once it gets to 100F [37C] you can’t go out,” said Norman, who has custody of her grandson, aged 18. “It’s very isolating, it’s depressing. I’ve had panic attacks worrying about my electricity bill.
If my daughter didn’t help out I would probably have ended up homeless or close to it.” Others asked to recount their experiences of this summer also felt life was altered because of the heat. “It’s sad because I usually love being out and about in the summer and I want to share that joy with my child but I’m scared of her overheating and suffering a heat injury,” said one man, who wished to remain anonymous, from North Carolina. Nina Johnson, from Austin, Texas, said electric bills of more than $200 take up a large portion of her monthly income of $550, meaning she has cut out pleasures such as ice-cream and lunch out with friends.
“I’m eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches,” she said. “There are food banks, but I don’t have transportation and taking the bus and walking in the heat for blocks is too much for me.” Some said their health, as well as their wallets, had suffered. Erin Hutchins, who lives in Biddeford, Maine, has previously suffered heatstroke and found this summer “unbearably hot” as her air conditioning doesn’t adequately cool her older building.
“I pay over $100 a month in electricity bills, and have had to go without other necessities to do so, because I live on a fixed income,” she said. “I think having heatstroke multiple times has permanently done damage, but it’s too soon to say. I don’t feel like the same person any more though.” Electricity bills have been climbing in the US since 2021, spurred by the power demands of artificial intelligence datacenters and the cost of utilities’ grid upgrades.
The severe global energy disruption caused by the US and Israeli attack on Iran earlier this year has accelerated this trend, raising power bills and adding $100bn in extra gasoline costs for Americans’ cars and trucks. An arrow chart showing top 10 utility companies driving the surge in July electricity cutoffs Donald Trump, who has dismissed both established climate science and concerns over soaring bills as a “hoax”, has consistently rejected criticism that the ongoing Iran war has hurt Americans by pushing up the cost of oil and gas. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation, I don’t think about anybody,” Trump said in May.
“We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, that’s all. That’s the only thing that motivates me.” At a recent rally in North Carolina, Trump acknowledged that Americans were facing higher gasoline costs but that was a “very inexpensive price to pay for what we’ve done”. To compound matters, the Trump administration has also sought to completely axe the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program ( Liheap ), which gives states money to assist people struggling with power bills.
While Congress has not agreed to the scheme’s demise, the administration has been accused of freezing obligated funds. “Americans are very concerned about affordability and getting rid of low-income energy aid is a step in the wrong direction, especially since the administration has made decisions that have increased many people’s costs around energy,” said Kate Gallego, mayor of Phoenix, which has just had its second hottest summer on record . Speaking to the Guardian at New York climate week, Gallego, a Democrat, said that the Trump administration’s attempts to strangle solar and wind energy, typically the cheapest sources of new power, and prop up more expensive, and dirtier, coal has also been harmful.
The Trump administration insists it is focused on cutting energy costs. “Lowering electricity prices is a top priority for President Trump, and he is aggressively unleashing reliable energy sources like coal and natural gas to reverse the catastrophic damage that Joe Biden and the Democrats did to our power grid,” said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson. “Joe Biden created a grid crisis, President Trump is fixing it.
If the Democrats had their way, these costly and unreliable renewable energy projects would still be failing our grid and our communities.” Yet successive presidencies have floundered in updating policies to align with a much hotter world. Even if the Liheap is saved, the program still allocates about 80% of its funding for heating assistance in winter, rather than for cooling in summer. “That’s been a problem across multiple administrations when we’re seeing so much of the country have challenges with heat,” said Gallego.
“When I think about the mayors I know throughout the world, most of them have a heatwave to contend with. This is a growing and global challenge.” Some cities and states have sought to provide financial assistance to households caught in the crunch of extreme weather and rising bills. Shade from extra trees, new water features in parks and playgrounds, cooling centers and early warning systems have all also become priorities for municipalities as hazards such as heatwaves have got fiercer.
“I have never known more about the weather than I do now,” admitted Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, last week as he recounted how the city has been repeatedly battered by floods since he took office. Another mayor, Michelle Wu of Boston, said this summer’s roasting temperatures were particularly challenging due to an influx of people drawn to the city for the World Cup, America’s 250th anniversary celebrations and a tall ships event. “We are past warning signs at this point, we are seeing increasing impacts from heat, flooding, air quality and livability and at the same time it has become more and more a political flashpoint to avoid talking about certain issues or words,” Wu said.
“At the city level, it doesn’t matter what words are said. We just have to take action and respond to the reality our residents are living.” With a record hot summer now passed, NEADA’s attention is now turning to how the elevated costs of oil and gas will affect Americans heating their homes in the colder months. On Monday, the organization estimated that homes heated by oil, most common in the US north-east, will face bills 50% higher than last year.
“Winter is just around the bend, and we are very concerned about what this means for low-income families that use heating oil,” said Wolfe, who has requested that Congress provide a further $3bn for Liheap to help defray this burden.
Source: The Guardian
