Multiple energy experts blasted Vice President Kamala Harris after she claimed Wednesday that the Biden administration has successfully reduced home heating and electricity prices.
“For working families, we have reduced heating and electricity bills so folks have more money in their pockets to buy things like schools supplies, replace the dishwasher or take a family vacation,” the vice president remarked during a speech in Maryland.
However, experts said the comments were inaccurate and noted that utility prices for most Americans have increased since President Biden and Harris took office in January 2021. They also slammed Harris for being “completely out of touch” and appearing to mislead Americans on the administration’s track record.
“I’m not aware of anywhere in the United States where electricity prices or heating prices have gone down,” Steve Milloy, a senior legal fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “Energy prices generally have gone up. Oil prices, gas prices, everything.”
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“Right from the beginning, Joe Biden put a chill on energy production,” Milloy continued. “He just discouraged it. So, there was less investment that went into it.”
Since January 2021, residential electricity prices have increased from 12.62 cents per kilowatthour to 15.64 cents per kilowatthour, a nearly 24% jump, according to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration. Across all sectors, the average price of electricity has increased more than 22% in that same time span.
And the average spot price for natural gas surged to $6.45 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2022 after increasing to $3.89 per MMBtu in 2021, federal data showed. The annual average price of natural gas never surpassed $3.15 per MMBtu under the Trump administration.
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“Vice President Harris’s claim that the Biden administration is bringing down electricity and heating bills shows that they are completely out of touch with the realities faced by people trying to cope with high energy costs,” said Myron Ebell, the director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment.
“The president and vice president are so clueless they are not even aware that increasing electric and heating costs are largely the consequences of their own misguided policies,” Ebell told Fox News Digital.
In addition, the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association (NEADA) – a group that advocates for policies that ease energy price burdens on low-income Americans – issued a report in late January showing that the number of Americans filing applications for low-income energy assistance had surged from 4.9 million to 6.2 million, the largest one-year increase since 2009.
The group noted that families are struggling to keep up with energy bills that are near their highest level in more than a decade and increasing faster than the overall rate of inflation. Also, an increasing number of families, about 20.8 million households, are behind on their electric and gas bills.
“Based on NEADA’s analysis of home energy prices, households will face significant increases in home heating expenditures this winter compared to last year,” the Jan. 30 report stated. “On average, households will pay 12.7% more for home heating this winter.”
“Heating oil expenditures are projected to have the largest increase relative to the other fuels, with a 25.9% increase, which is nearly $500 more than the 2021-22 winter heating season,” it continued. “Natural gas expenditures may also see a significant jump of 14.5% more than last year, more than an additional $100.”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.