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V
irginia
C
apitol
C
onnections
, S
pring
2015
19
As a person who has spent a lifetime fighting on behalf of
poor people, this concerns me greatly, and it troubles the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference that I represent.
The reason is simple: Higher electricity bills hurt poor and
low-income families the most. These communities, frequently
consisting of disadvantaged minorities, already spend a larger share
of their limited income on monthly utility bills—far more than
affluent communities spend as a share of their income. In fact, a
Stanford University study suggests that the new regulations would
mean households in the lowest income group shouldering increased
energy costs at more than twice the rate of households in the highest
10 percent of income.
Paying for electricity is not a discretionary expense. The poor
and the elderly on fixed incomes need heat in the winter and air
conditioning in the summer as much as higher-income households,
only they have fewer dollars to pay for these necessities.
Rising utility bills can often result in painful sacrifices—a
poorer diet, poorer health, fewer of life’s little pleasures and
certainly none of the costlier ones. And utility bills are bound to
climb as the most affordable electricity is eliminated, forcing us to
rely on costlier sources. People’s health conditions are impacted if
they are forced to live without air conditioning or heat, or if meals
are skipped just to foot higher utility bills.
This is a case of government trying to make things better while
creating spin-off problems. Surprisingly, even the environmental
benefit will be negligible. That’s because American power plants
are now far cleaner, and are no longer the largest source of carbon
emissions. Instead, power plants and factories in Asia produce far
greater carbon output.
Overall, the EPA
is asking us to pay
the price for a prob-
lem we can’t fix, and
it expects low-income
households to pay the
largest share.
Before the EPA
adopts these measures,
it should think twice
about pursuing ex-
treme rules that will
have a negligible envi-
ronmental impact, but
could bring great pain
to hard-working every-
day Americans.
Steele is president and
CEO of the Southern
Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC), a
civil rights organiza-
tion co-founded by Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Editors note: Reprinted
with permission from
Dr. Charles Steele Jr.
and The Hill.
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