West Virginia Sen. Capito: Energy costs expected to rise this winter

WASHINGTON (WV News) — West Virginians are likely to see increased heating bills this winter, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R.W.Va., said Wednesday.

Speaking during a Senate Republican press conference, Capito said rising inflation and the Biden administration’s energy policies are to blame.

“We’re getting ready to go into the winter months, and it’s predicted by independent analysis that the cost of home heating will jump 54% this year,” she said. “When I think about my fellow West Virginians, many of whom are on fixed incomes, they are going to have to make choices about how warm they can stay, if they can go out, if they can go to a restaurant or if they can buy enough food in their own home. They are going to have make these choices because of the rise (in costs). People have problems paying their bills in those cold winter months anyway.”

Natural gas bills are estimated to increase by around 30%, Capito said.

“Most of our state is heated by natural gas, but we’re also heated by propane,” the senator said. “The EIA (the U.S. Energy Information Agency), just projected a 54% increase in the cost of propane. So it’s going to hit everywhere.”

According to the EIA’s “Winter Fuels Outlook” report, an increase in average heating prices is forecast this winter for all regions of the country and all heating fuels under a wide variety of weather conditions.

Compared with last winter’s heating costs, EIA forecasts U.S. households will spend 54% more for propane, 43% more for heating oil, 30% more for natural gas and 6% more for electric heating. U.S. households will spend even more if the weather is colder than expected.

“As we have moved beyond what we expect to be the deepest part of the pandemic-related economic downturn, growth in energy demand has generally outpaced growth in supply,” said EIA acting Administrator Steve Nalley. “These dynamics are raising energy prices around the world.”

In addition to higher fuel costs, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expects a slightly colder winter this year than last. The EIA expects colder temperatures to increase U.S. energy consumption for heating this winter.

“The higher global and domestic energy prices that are resulting from economies beginning to grow again are going to translate into larger household bills for energy this winter,” Nalley said.

The EIA expects households that use natural gas as their primary space heating fuel will spend $746 this winter, 30% more than they spent last winter. This increase in natural gas expenditures comes from both higher expected prices and higher expected consumption.

The 4% of U.S. households that use heating oil as the primary space heating fuel will spend $1,734 on average this winter, up 43% from last winter. These higher heating oil expenditures primarily reflect higher retail heating oil prices, which the EIA forecasts will be 33% higher than last winter.

Households that heat primarily with electricity will spend an average of $1,268 this winter on their electricity bills, which is 6% more than last winter. This increase is a result of the EIA’s forecast of 1% more electricity consumption and 5% higher residential electricity prices.

Nearly all U.S. households use electricity in some form, but 41% rely on electric heat pumps or electric resistance heaters as their primary source for space heating. Nearly two-thirds of homes in the South heat primarily with electricity. Electric heaters are also commonly used as a secondary heating source in many U.S. homes.

About 1.7 million U.S. households, or 1.3% of the total, will use cord wood or wood pellets as their primary fuel for residential space heating this winter. Another 8% of households are estimated to use wood as a secondary source of heat, making wood second to electricity as a supplemental heating fuel for U.S. households.

As of 2015, one in four rural U.S. households used wood for primary or secondary space heating, compared with 6% of urban households. Wood use was most common in New England, where 21% of households used wood as either a primary or secondary source of heat.