Connecticut Has Nation's Highest Energy Costs, Analysis Finds

This will probably not come as a surprise to anyone who has paid a bill recently.  Connecticut is the nation’s most energy-expensive state.

A new national analysis found that the average monthly energy bill for Connecticut consumers is $411 per month, ahead of Wyoming ($403), Massachusetts ($380), Georgia ($374), Alabama ($371), Maine ($370) and Alaska ($366).  Among the other New England states, New Hampshire ranked 10th, Rhode Island 11th and Vermont 14th.  The analysis was conducted by the financial services website WalletHub.

“Many factors affect the energy prices in a given state,” explained Harrison Fell, Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University. “For electricity, these factors include state and local taxes, state energy and environmental policies, market regulation and design, the generation mix across fuel types, and access to generation fuels.”

Nationwide, residential electricity use is projected to increase by 2.8% this year, WalletHub reported.  The analysis compared the average monthly energy bills in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia using a formula that accounts for residential energy types including electricity, natural gas, motor fuel and home heating oil.

While Connecticut ranked most expensive overall, the state faired better in specific categories, as compared with other states.  Connecticut ranked:

·         4th – Price of Electricity

·         9th – Price of Natural Gas

·         15th – Price of Motor Fuel

·         28th – Natural-Gas Consumption per Consumer

In electricity prices, Hawaii, Alaska and Massachusetts were somewhat more expensive than Connecticut. The highest home heating oil consumption levels per consumer were across New England, with Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts coming in with the largest quantities of home heating oil used. 

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the highest energy consumption of the year is recorded in July, followed by August. That leads to higher energy costs during this period. In the U.S., energy costs account for between 5 and 22 percent of families’ total after-tax income, with the poorest Americans, or 25 million households, paying the highest of that range, according to WalletHub.

“Where we live and how much energy we use are a big part of the equation,” the website points out.

Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Federal Highway Administration, American Automobile Association, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.