FSC Finds Widening Energy Gap

A new release from the consulting firm of Fisher, Sheehan and Colton (FSC) is the 2006 Home Energy Affordability Gap series.   Created in 2003, it provides tables that quantify the gap between "affordable" home energy bills and "actual" home energy bills, in order to estimate the "home energy affordability gap" on a county-by-county basis for the entire country. It has been updated yearly since 2003.

Using 2002 energy prices, FSC found in its initial Home Energy Affordability Gap analysis that the annual "affordability gap" reached roughly $18.2 billion and that energy assistance provided through LIHEAP covered just a fraction of that gap.

Using 2005 energy prices in its 2006 Home Energy Affordability Gap analysis, FSC found that the shortfall between actual home energy bills and affordable home energy bills had risen to $23.2 billion, an increase of 27 percent in just four years.

The 2006 series is available at: http://www.homeenergyaffordabilitygap.com/   The website also contains prior year series in order to provide historical perspective.

Source: FSC

Page Last Updated: May 1, 2007