Customer Engagement & Experience
Molly Glick
Molly Glick
Energy Central Team
·Posted in Customer Engagement & Experience
Thu, May 28

NEWS: Here’s how ratepayers’ energy burden ranks by state.

  • As electricity bills skyrocket around the country, the energy burden (aka the percentage of income spent on energy costs) hasn’t spread equally.

  • New England tops the list: According to a new Sierra Club analysis, ME, VT, and NH households face some of the highest average burdens, ranging from 4.3% to 3.5% (these states rely on pricey fuel oil for heating). When counting low-income households exclusively, ME and VT residents shoulder an energy burden over 10% (MS and WV were close behind).

  • Black and Native American people are overrepresented in high energy burden communities—at rates over 3.5x and 7x higher than the general population. 

  • The caveat: The recent report draws on energy cost data from 2022…and home electricity prices rose over 9% between 2025 and 2026 alone. So future analysis would likely highlight even starker disparities.

1