Americans Could See Electric Bills Jump 4% in the Summer Heat

When the thermometer starts to climb this summer, your electric bill will likely climb with it.

That’s according to recent figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), showing that the average American home will spend around $186 per month on electricity during June, July and August.

That figure represents a 3.7% increase from last summer, and a 25% increase over the rates people paid in the summer of 2021.

The EIA says the increase is driven by forecasts of a hotter-than-normal summer and a 37% jump in natural gas prices. Some regions will see higher increases than others, though virtually every part of the country can expect to pay more.

The highest increases will be seen in New England, where monthly power bills could climb to $200 on average, a 6.7% increase, the largest in the country. A report by The Wall Street Journal noted that this increase is driven by a lack of natural gas pipelines in that part of the country.

The price increases are happening as consumers continue to tighten their belts in response to uncertainty triggered by the White House’s trade policies.

As PYMNTS wrote this spring, an astonishing $92 billion could vanish from the American economy annually as consumers cut back. This isn’t a projection based on complex economic models or worst-case scenarios, PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster has written, but rather simple math based on actual consumer behavior already underway nationwide.

“But as the tariff on again/off again scenarios continue to play out, that math is worth revisiting,” that report said. “According to census data, U.S. retail spending reached about $7.4 trillion over the last year, roughly 80% of which comes from consumers.”

Recent PYMNTS Intelligence research finds that 78% of these consumers say they’ll cut back by buying less or buying cheaper. Even a 2% dip in spending across this group would wipe away close to $100 billion from the economy, inviting the specter of, as Webster put it, “a self-inflicted recession.”

What’s left over, that report said, is the “contradiction of today’s economy,” with people spending more while buying less. Even as consumers scale back, necessities still command their dollars.

“You can skip the morning latte, but you can’t skip feeding your family,” Webster wrote. “You can cancel streaming subscriptions, but you still must pay the electric bill.”