DENVER, Colorado – The rising cost of energy in the United States disproportionately affects Latino and other minority families who, because they lack the same financial resources as whites, must allocate a higher percentage of their income to pay for these services, explained an expert on the subject.
“The families of the communities of color and Latinos do not have the same level of savings to supplement the cost of basic products, such as energy, and are then forced to cut other items of consumption,” said Dr. Alfredo Romero this Wednesday . , associate professor of economics at North Carolina State University.
Romero was referring to a new report, released by the organization Climate Power, which based on in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) reveals that during 2021 the increase in the cost of energy reached 29.3 %, “affecting all Americans”, but “mostly and unbearably communities of color”.
Specifically, one-third of families in the United States have trouble paying their electricity, gas, and utility bills. Among these families, half are African-American and another 40 % are Hispanic.
In In the case of Latinos, these families allocate 24 % more of their income than whites to energy payments (4.1% vs. 3.3%, respectively). And in the case of low-income families, that percentage is 7%.
For Romero, it is important for Latinos to be informed about this issue and related issues ( as renewable and clean energy) because “climatic conditions have become more extreme in recent years and consequently the prices of fossil fuel energy are subject to the whims of nature or of energy producers. petroleum and its derivatives”.
“Our community can benefit in the short and long term by adopting renewable energy technologies that allow it to reduce its budget expenditure on energy”, Romero said.
For example, according to a recent study by the consulting firm Rhodium Group (cited by Climate Power), investments in clean energy and efficient energy could reduce $500 dollars per year average cost of energy for American families.
And those investments (proposed by President Joe Biden in his Build Back Better bill) are possible, Romero argued, because “the cost of producing renewable energy, which makes years it was high, now it has decreased due to all the new technologies, and its efficiency has increased”.
No However, the current coronavirus pandemic and its consequences, especially inflation, as well as “the interconnectedness of world markets”, mean that “the cure for high prices is even higher prices”.
Therefore, Romero suggested “try to save energy as much as possible, use energy efficient products (from light bulbs to appliances), turn off lights that are not being used, and unplug devices that are not used constantly.” And if the budget allows it, “improve the thermal insulation of homes”.
But even all these measures could be insufficient if the cost of energy does keeps rising, since energy is irreplaceable “to keep our families comfortable, with healthy temperatures inside the home.”
In this context, Romero argued that “an expansion of clean energy sources is important, as proposed in Build Back Better,” a proposal that he described as a “tremendous help for the economy of Latino households and from all over the country”, both for reducing the cost of energy and for creating jobs.
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