The High Cost of Keeping Warm!
Sticker Shock!
OK, so, like all of us, I open my combined Gas and Electric bill only to be overcome with a sense of dread and disbelief. Yes, I saw the news reports that out Natural Gas bills would be higher, as we all did but this is outrageous!
I opened the bill, the NOVEMBER bill (certainly not the coldest month of the year) only to find my increase over last year at 80%! Yes, 80% higher. That’s a LOT of hard-earned money! We had our home renovated a few years back to reduce inefficiency and SAVE on our energy bills. I am shocked, appalled, and concerned for us all.
Where is Congress on this nifty little piece of hardship on so many people?
I cannot imagine how many of my neighbors who live paycheck to paycheck are going to deal with this. The programs that we have for those who need help in making their utility payments are being cut. How will we survive the coldest months that are still before us? How does a single mother barely getting by pay her bills? Or an unemployed manufacturing worker pay his heating bill with the unemployment check that won’t be there six weeks from now?
Is there not something that can be done? Is there nothing this Congress can do to address the skyrocketing cost of Natural Gas? How much more can we be expected to take?
We must demand that Thaddeus McCotter and his colleagues intervene and at the very least mandate assistance for those in poverty and they must also demand a public hearing on why the cost of heating our homes and providing shelter to our families has become so expensive. Especially while the
median wage is in a free fall and the average job being created offers less money and no benefits.
I’m afraid that this drastic increase in Natural Gas prices will force people to use alternatives to heating their homes, creating potentially disastrous choices.
At a minimum we must ask our leaders to intervene with companies that profit from these increases. It’s called leadership. Instead of just playing lead guitar, Mr. McCotter, try leading in Congress on an issue that affects every single voter in the District and the country, not just Republicans and Big Business.
