Homeowners in Connecticut need to come to terms with the realities of local energy costs.  The fact is that across the board Connecticut homeowners pay energy prices that are at-or-near the top price levels in the United States.  I don’t mean just high electricity prices, I mean the prices of fuels to heat our homes and fuels to power our automobiles.  Connecticut homeowners need to understand the overall energy picture in the State in order to make better decisions about taking near-term energy conservation measures and in making long-term energy conservation investments in existing building retrofits and new construction building components.

The following bar graph from data provided by U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) shows the average retail price of total residential energy purchased per million Btu’s by households for each state.  (Btu's is used as a common measure allowing us to compare/combine quantities of fuel that have different volume measures and energy outputs.  For example, 1 MCF (one thousand cubic feet) of natural gas has about 1,020,000 Btu's which is the same energy output as approximately 7.4 gallons of fuel oil, which has 138,500 Btu's per gallon.)  The price level reflects the average energy cost based on the actual mix of energy sources for home use consumed by the residents of each state.  The energy sources include: electricity, home heating fuel oil, natural gas, LPG, coal, kerosene and biomass (wood). The data is for 2009, the latest year available.

At $28.70 per million Btu's Connecticut has the third highest residential energy cost among the lower 48 states for the mix of energy sources consumed by the average CT household.  Florida is the highest, paying a little over $35.00 per million Btu’s, which is a result of Florida’s residential energy mix being heavily weighted by electricity.  Florida is very unusual in its dependency on expensive electric energy for both summer cooling and winter heating — approximately 90 percent of Florida households are heated electrically.

Connecticut is 28% higher than the national average residential energy cost of $22.13 per MM Btu’s and nearly 70% higher than the lowest quartile of states. 

While the above chart does not include motor fuels consumed by residents it is useful to note that Connecticut residents are further burdened by shouldering the highest annual household auto expense (excluding financing costs) in the United States (lower 48.)  Consider the following chart with inputs provided by Bundle, from analysis of actual VISA and MasterCard spending data for 2009 (latest available.)

The average household in CT spends $7,652 per year on automobile fuel, maintenance and other non-financial expenditures.  This is approximately 40% higher than the national average and 64% higher than the states in the lower quartile.

One response may be that while Connecticut residents are burdened by the highest energy costs in America, the State benefits from the highest per capita income in the United States to offset these higher costs.  The problem with this logic is that there is great income disparity throughout the State; although New Canaan has one of the highest per capita incomes in America ($85,459,) Hartford is one of ten cities with the lowest per capita income in America ($13,428.) As with Bridgeport, New Haven and other cities in the state, Hartford is surrounded by wealthier suburbs.  High energy prices are blind to this income disparity and the burden is disproportionately felt by the middle and lower income households.

My next blog on Connecticut’s residential energy costs will try to shed some light on the drivers of our relatively high costs.  My final blog will discuss the implications for homeowners in the State.