I have noticed from power bill to power bill that the amount owed is getting stiffer….even now when the A/C is not running the bill continues to rise.
What is going on?
More people are falling behind on paying their bills to keep on the lights and heat their homes, according to a new analysis of consumer data—a warning sign for the US economy and another political headache for President Trump, the AP reports. Past due balances to utility companies jumped 9.7% annually to $789 between the April-June periods of 2024 and 2025, said The Century Foundation, a liberal think tank, and the advocacy group Protect Borrowers. The increase has overlapped with a 12% jump in monthly energy bills during the same period. Consumers usually prioritize their utility bills along with their mortgages and auto debt, said Julie Margetta Morgan, the foundation’s president. The increase in both energy costs and delinquencies may suggest that consumers are falling behind on other bills, too.
Nearly 6 million households have utility debt “so severe” that it will soon be reported to collection agencies, according to the foundation’s analysis, drawn from the University of California Consumer Credit Panel. Troubles paying electricity and natural gas bills reflect something of an economic quandary for Trump, who is promoting the buildout of the artificial intelligence industry as a key part of an economic boom he has promised for America. But AI data centers are known for their massive use of electricity, and threaten to further increase utility bills for everyday Americans.
These troubles also come as Trump faces political pressure from voters fed up with the high cost of living. The president spoke about the economy and affordability issues Monday at an event hosted by the McDonald’s fast food company. “We have it almost at the sweet spot and prices are coming down on different things,” Trump said at the event, adding that inflation has been “normalized” at a “low level.” Ever since Republicans saw their fortunes sag in off-year elections this month and affordability was identified as the top issue, Trump has been trying to convince the public that prices are falling. Fast-rising electricity bills could be an issue in some congressional battlegrounds in next year’s midterm elections.
I keep hearing from Donny that energy costs are dropping…..I have not seen such…..how about you?
Maybe that elusive check from Donny will help out.
I Read, I Write, You KNow
“lego ergo scribo”
DT doesn’t live in the real world, just the fantasy inside his own addled brain. He just carries on spouting lies, and his fans do not even believe the truth when it is written on their utility bills that they can no longer afford to pay.
Best wishes, Pete.
Brings me to the old saying ‘can’t fix stupid’. chuq
Where is all this gas at 2.50/gal? I’m still a few cents under $4.
MS has one of the lower prices today we are paying about $2.70 a gallon. chuq
The inflation will soon bring a true depression, 1930s style..
It is looking good for the prediction. chuq
I’m looking at a 20% increase in electric rates here over the next 2 years. If not more. Microsoft and Meta are both building massive data centers here. Just the Microsoft one is going to use as much energy as every single household in the state put together. The utility companies are embarking on a massive building plan to put in natural gas fired power plants. The problem with that is we don’t have big enough nat gas pipelines to feed all those new power plants once they’re in place. Plus we don’t have the infrastructure, the power lines, substations and transformers, that are necessary to handle that much power. They’re talking about re-activating the retired nuclear plant about 30 miles from here. But that facility has been shut down for years and would take at least 5 years to get it back into operation again. The cooling pumps. much of the piping, etc. would all have to be replaced.
No matter how you look at it we’re in for massive increases in electric rates over the next few years. The utility companies are claiming that MS and Meta are going to pay for 75% of that expansion. Yeah, right, sure they will. Just like Foxconn was going to build a billion dollar factory that would employ thousands and thousand of people,. right? The towns in that area will be spending decades paying off the millions of dollars that they sunk into that fiasco.
As Pete said, DT lives in a fantasy world. Even before he started to suffer from dementia he lived in a gilded cage where he was shielded from the real world by money and the sycophants who were using him to their own advantage.
The future seems bleak than x to Donny-Do-Little and he has lost whatever ‘groove’ he thought he had in the past.
GF apparently we seldom sleep….LOL chuq
Ah, sleep…. Yeah these days it’s rare for me to sleep more than 5 hours or so. I go to bed around 11 or 11:30 and fall asleep immediately but then I’m completely wide awake by 4 AM or so. And I mean wide awake. It’s absolutely futile for me to try to get back to sleep. Then by about 8 AM pr so I start getting tired and I’ll take a nap for an hour or so. Been doing this for ages.
I go to bed about 5 pm and awake by 9 maybe 10 then it is a nap here and there….been that way since I worked in the bar business. chuq
I used to be a bartender years ago so I know exactly what you mean. I’ve had some odd work schedules. When I was with the cash register company I was on call 24/7 and a lot of jobs could only be done overnight when the store was closed. Back in 1999 we were scrambling to deal with the Y2K situation and I was running all over doing software updates that required the systems to be shut down completely so I was pulling a hell of a lot of all nighters. I finally put my foot down and told the owner I wasn’t going to do it any longer unless they put me up in a motel after I woke up one day at noon, in my own bed, and I didn’t remember driving home.
I also had a maintenance job where I was on call 24/7 every 2 weeks….so yeah it soon lives in you. chuq
I was in the grocery store and found that the price of Halloween candy was down, and if you like salty pork bacon, it was on sale too — you know — all that stuff that is not good for human consumption.
I read that it will get worse…..nice to see you again……chuq
Some of the stores now have coupons but without prices — just percentage off. Consumers might think they’re getting a deal but it isn’t when the price has been raised by $2.00.
These days the old ‘bait and hook’ seems to be running amok. chuq