America’s electricity problem shows up in Genia Weitz’s mailbox in the form of a $1,340 electricity bill that she has nine days to pay, more than she brings in in a month. Write for New York Times, Eli Saslow zooms in on McAlester, Oklahoma, to show how the hottest summer on record in the United States is turning into a fall shutdown season, as consumer protections against outages during heat peaks expire and racked-up bills and disconnection notices land. About one in six American households are now behind on their energy bills, and in Oklahoma, utility PSO says it’s juggling extreme heat, grid upgrades and massive new demands on data centers, even as families like Weitz’s shrink their lives to a single cooled room. Weitz relies on an oxygen machine and says without it, “I don’t think I would last a single night.”
Saslow follows three generations trying different survival strategies: a disabled grandmother seeking medical advice to delay quitting; her daughter, now an office worker, goes into debt to buy more air conditioning that she still cannot afford; and a young mother on a prepaid plan, adding to her account a few dollars at a time as the electricity turns on and off. Churches, charities and neighbors are overwhelmed. For an in-depth look at how a utility bill becomes a crisis, read Saslow’s full article in the New York Times.
Gn bussni
