Race is a determining factor in who struggles to pay their energy bills in Georgia, according to a new report by Georgia Tech researchers.
The report, released Thursday, builds on a body of literature documenting that the energy burdens of Black households are higher than other races. The new analysis finds that gap persists even when accounting for other factors like wealth.
“We did do a big statistical analysis ... and concluded that yes, there’s a racial causality underpinning the differences in energy burden,” said Marilyn Brown, a Georgia Tech professor and the lead author. “All things being equal — two equally low-income [households] living in the same area — you still see a racial distinction.”
Energy burden, or how much a households pays from its income to cover gas and electricity, has become more salient in public policy discussions as the nation confronts the twin problems of rising temperatures and aging infrastructure. Utilities are under pressure to bring new renewable energy sources online while also meeting the energy demand from a surge in manufacturing and new data centers.
Over the past year or so, Georgia Power, the largest utility in the state by number of customers, has bumped its rates by about 10%, an increase of roughly $14.38 to most ratepayer’s monthly bills. A spokesperson for Georgia Power said the company works to keep rates “as affordable as possible.” He also pointed to the utility’s emergency assistance program and its income-qualified senior citizen discount, which is available to eligible customers alongside government programs.
Tackling climate change by making homes more energy efficient has been a priority of the Biden administration, which expanded legacy weatherization programs that have been in place since the 1970s and passed billions of dollars worth of incentives in the form of new tax credits, rebates and grants.
Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic state lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate who is now senior counsel to the nonprofit Rewiring America, spoke to energy professionals at a conference in Atlanta this week where she said it was vital to empower average Americans to invest in their homes by making them aware of assistance.
“It’s the ability to have a power bill that doesn’t make you make a decision between paying your utility bill and paying for your prescription drugs,” Abrams told the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. “Those are choices that real people have to make every day.”
The city of Atlanta has launched its own $2.4 million program going door to door to sign up residents for weatherization and efficiency upgrades.
The new Georgia Tech report, which was funded by the Sierra Club and has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, found that Black households were even more vulnerable if they had children, elderly people or were headed by a woman. With increased vulnerability, the consequences of high energy burdens were also magnified and could include losing electricity, water and internet; missing work or school; and eviction.
But Brown said it’s not just low-income, Black households that are affected. Statewide, Georgians pay higher household bills, despite having slightly lower electricity rates, largely because much of the housing stock is old and inefficient. That is even more true in Black neighborhoods that were subjected to racial redlining or divided by interstate highways.
While many of the policies that made it difficult for Black people to own or improve their home are historic, Brown pointed out that her study included mortgage denial data that was as recent as 2018 that showed racial distinctions.
“It’s not ancient history,” Brown said. “We don’t have any more current data to look at, so you do worry that there’s maybe still some discrimination in where financing is enabled.”
A note of disclosure
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