EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – A new study shows that almost half of all Texas households struggled with high energy costs in the last year.
A lendingtree.com survey shows electricity prices have surged by 16-percent based on the cost per kilowatt-hour in just the past 12 months.
That has led to approximately 45-percent of Texas households saying they had to go without some basic necessities such as food or medicine to pay their energy bill.
That is the highest rate of any state in the nation. Overall, about 34-percent of Americans reported having to skip out on some type of basic expense in order to pay for electricity.
The skyrocketing prices have even led to 21-percent of Americans keeping their home at an unsafe or uncomfortable temperature just to avoid using energy, according to the survey.
New Mexico came in tenth on the list with about 37-percent of respondents saying they had to reduce basic expenses to make up the difference.
The issue has particularly impacted people of color nationwide with 40-percent of Black households and 35.9-percent of Latino households reporting that they had to make sacrifices to pay at least one energy bill within the past year.
Approximately 17.7-percent of white households and 12.1-percent of Asian households reported having the same problem paying their bills due to rising costs.
