When PGE bills spiked to insane levels in California last month, I immediately saw people start to blame consumers for the spike.
Or worse, I saw consumers blame themselves.
Overall, my readers were outraged by the high bills. But many also seemed to feel guilty, laying out all the things they did to try to reduce their electric bills.
This unfortunate reader took so many steps! You could almost see the self-blame oozing off the page. He seemed to feel that if only he had taken more steps, his bill could have been lower!
People often tell me things like “Well, I did use the AC last month…I guess that’s why I paid $1,000+ for electricity and can’t afford my rent.”
Why are we so fast to blame ourselves for high bills? Because the knee-jerk response from the media and electric companies themselves is to blame the consumer.
That response is morally bankrupt.
We have headlines like this one in the New York Times implying that readers should “Swear Off Air Conditioning.”
PGE itself says that “The most common cause of high electric bills in the summer is running an air conditioning unit.”
As if, in 100+ degree weather, we have a choice??
The agency goes on to recommend that consumers set their thermostats to 85 degrees at night as if using the AC is an unaffordable luxury and sweating it out is a better alternative.
AC Is Not a Luxury
The reality is that air conditioning is a life-saving technology. According to the CDC, more than 1,000 people are killed by extreme heat in the United States every year.
One of the CDC’s key recommendations is to “Stay cool in an air conditioned area” and to “Stay in an air-conditioned place as much as possible.”
“Air conditioning, a technology many take for granted in the world’s wealthiest nations, is a life-saving tool during extreme heat waves,” Harvard says.
And that proposed 85-degree nighttime temperature? Well, a study in Japan found that high nighttime temperatures are a big driver of deaths during heat waves.
When the temperature is over 77 degrees at night, the study found, mortality increases 9%.
Running your air conditioning during a heatwave, in other words, isn’t something to feel bad about. It certainly isn’t something anyone would blame you for.
In fact, the public health messaging should be “Use your AC as much as possible during extreme heat” not “Turn off the AC or set the thermostat very high.” Guilt about using cooling could prove deadly if people feel they shouldn’t use the AC when it gets hot.
Instead of blaming people for using the AC, officials should work on the root causes of high electric bills: wildfire risks, anemic investment in infrastructure, expensive environmental incentives, and more, according to the LA Times.
Those are hard problems to solve. But California needs to solve them.
Telling people that high bills are their fault–and they should adjust their thermostat and live with extreme heat–is a bankrupt approach that will only cause anguish and won’t fix the real issues.
He’s mad about the excesses of California life, and he’s not afraid to say it. Follow The Angry Californian for more.
