A $940 electric bill on a fixed income reveals how energy costs are now unaffordable by design

A $940.08 electric bill on a fixed income doesn’t just strain a budget — it breaks it. For Rebecca Michalski of West Virginia, that bill arrived in February, surpassing her entire monthly income. She’s not behind because she’s careless. She’s behind because the system no longer accounts for people like her.

Electricity prices rose 5.8% over the past year. Natural gas, a primary heating and power source, jumped more than 14%. These aren’t outliers. Residential electricity rates have trended upward for years, especially in regions with outdated grids and extreme weather exposure. Michalski turns off lights, uses one lamp at night, and still faces a number that defies survival math.

The pressure isn’t just from weather or usage. Utilities are passing billions in infrastructure upgrade costs directly to customers. Power generation remains tightly linked to natural gas, making bills sensitive to global disruptions, including war and supply shocks. At the same time, data centers — fueled by AI and cloud growth — are pulling unprecedented power, adding demand to systems already at capacity.

In 2024 alone, utilities sought nearly $31 billion in rate hikes, nearly double the prior year. Tens of millions of households could feel the impact. The U.S. Department of Energy defines a high energy burden as spending more than 6% of income on utilities. Low-income households routinely pay triple that. In West Virginia, where real household income has fallen since 1970 despite abundant energy resources, the gap is widest. Aging coal infrastructure adds cost without delivering affordability.

Energy is no longer a predictable line item. It’s a front-line expense that can exceed rent, food, or medicine — and for millions, it’s becoming unpayable.