How Families Cope with Energy Insecurity

Mar 14, 2023

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New research looks into the coping mechanisms that families use to navigate energy insecurity, as a guide for policy-based solutions.
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The number of American households experiencing energy insecurity spiked during the COVID pandemic in 2020, as growing unemployment and falling incomes made it difficult for more households to balance utility bills with other financial demands. Yet the rising incidence of energy insecurity, and the often short-term focus of assistance to keep families financially afloat, belies the reality that energy insecurity is often a chronic challenge that predates acute financial crises, and persists long after.

Sanya Carley, director of the Energy Justice Lab at Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, discusses the nature of household energy insecurity, and novel research into the coping mechanisms that families experiencing energy insecurity use to juggle often competing needs of energy, food, and healthcare. Carley also talks about existing public policy measures to address energy insecurity, and the need for new types of data to underpin effective policy action.

Sanya Carley is director of the Energy Justice Lab at Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.