The price of natural gas has been high since Russia invaded Ukraine, which is impacting the provision of electric and natural gas utility service of course.
In Q2 2022, 1.34 percent of consumer expenditures were on electricity. That’s one and a third percent.
How about we express this as a fraction? One-seventy-fifth of what consumers spent was for electricity.
Historically, 1.34 percent is fairly moderate. Over the last ten years, electricity’s percentage of Q2 consumer expenditures was 1.40 percent or more from the year 2013 through 2016. In 2017 and 2018 it dipped to 1.36 percent and 1.34 percent respectively.
On July 28, the Commerce Department published the Gross Domestic Product data for the second quarter. This key economic indicator tells us, among other things, where we are with respect to utility expenditures.
Overall consumer expenditures, nationwide, were up 8.4 percent year-over-year in Q2. Expenditures on consumer goods were up 6.4 percent. But on consumer services they were up 9.5 percent.
Utility commitments to get to zero by a particular time, say 2045, seem to hold much more sway among certain constituencies than minimizing emissions along the way to that zero-target year. Which is weird I think and somewhat unfortunate.
