Surging energy demand following a winter storm in Texas led to huge electricity bills for residents.
Elizabeth Dehghanpoor lost her job as a certified medical assistant six months ago amid a pandemic-induced round of layoffs, and the 26-year-old has depended on her unemployment check to cover the $670 monthly rent on her one-bedroom apartment in Houston ever since.Â
She would normally spend what was left â usually about $330 â on food, her phone bill and electricity. Her power bill normally ranges from $45 to $75, depending on how long she leaves the air conditioner on during hot months. But last weekâs catastrophic snow storm threw her penny-pinching survival strategy into disarray. After frigid temperatures brought rolling blackouts to Texas and sent demand surging, her power bill for February topped $1,127, according to screenshots of her account HuffPost reviewed.Â
Texas’ blackouts may come at a steep cost
Especially for people who struggle with energy bills year-round
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Photo by Matthew Busch / AFP via Getty Images
As the lights begin to turn back on after nearly a week of outages across Texas, residents who already struggled to pay their utility bills might find it harder to recover. Costs are piling up that could continue to limit some people’s access to heating and electricity even after blackouts end.
“The ‘heat or eat dilemma’ is a really, really significant issue.”
“The ‘heat or eat dilemma’ is a really, really significant issue,” says Emily Grubert, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “We know that a lot of people are going to basically be choosing between paying for heating or paying for other things that they really need.”