While the US stock market has doubled since 2020, many American families face economic hardship. Rising costs for cooling homes, credit card debt, and utility bills strain household budgets, contrasting with the perceived success of the wealthy.
Millions in Great Britain face rising energy bills as costs are forecast to increase by nearly 13% from summer. Ministers are urged to provide targeted support, with campaigners expressing disappointment over the lack of immediate action on domestic energy costs.
Record-breaking summer heat is expected to drive up electricity bills by an average of 8.5% nationwide, straining household budgets. Rising energy costs, coupled with increased demand for cooling, are forcing families to cut back on other expenses and seek assistance.
Massive new data centers are the physical foundation for tech companies’ hopes and dreams for AI. But the rush to expand warehouses full of energy-hungry servers has also kicked up fights across the world over their impact on power grids, utility bills, nearby communities, and the environment.  From audacious plans to launch data centers into […]
As communities push for publicly owned electricity, private utilities may be deploying dark money and local front groups to stop themThe utility industry is quietly dispatching a network of front groups to thwart the growing push for public power across the US – a push that comes amid mounting frustration over sky-high utility bills, electric outages, a slow transition to clean energy and private utilities’ soaring profits.Communities from Ann Arbor, Michigan to San Diego, California and St Petersburg, Florida are exploring municipalizing their grids to join the country’s approximately 2,000 public power companies. Continue reading...
A review by the Energy and Policy Institute reveals that CEOs of the nation's top 51 utilities received a 16% pay raise to an average of $12.3m last year, even as customers faced utility bill increases of up to 40% since 2021 and 13m power shutoffs nationwide. The analysis found 38 CEOs received raises collectively worth $82m, with American Electric Power's Bill Ferhman receiving the largest increase at $23m to $36.6m. Customers have paid over $5bn for CEO compensation since 2017, while utility prices remain a key driver of continuing inflation.
