Combined Energy Burdens/Estimating Total Home and Transportation Energy Burdens: American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy Report

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (“ACEEE”) issued a May 2024 Report titled:

Combined Energy Burdens: Estimating Total Home and Transportation Energy Burdens. (“Report”)

The Report concludes that in measuring combined home and vehicle energy burdens, there are significant disparities by income, race, and ethnicity.

Key findings of the Report include:

• Combined energy burdens include both home energy and transportation fuel costs as a share of income in order to provide a holistic picture of household energy expenditure. 
• In 2022, U.S. households spent on average 5.6% of their income on energy, with transportation fuel making up over half of this spending.
• Low-income households spent on average 17.8% of their income on energy alone, almost four times the national average. 
• Roughly one in four households experienced high combined energy burdens (spent more than 12% of their income just on energy) and a staggering three in four low-income households experienced high combined burdens.  
• Rural households had an average combined burden nearly 50% higher than urban households. 
• Black households spent on average 6% of their income on energy, roughly 10% above the national average. 
• Hispanic households spent on average 7.9% of their income on energy, roughly 42% above the national average. 
• The increasing adoption of electric vehicles will cause home electric energy burdens to increase while decreasing transportation fuel burdens, making the tracking of combined energy burdens more important.

The components of the Report include:

• Methodology
• Data limitations
• Defining combined burdens
• Annual and quarterly estimates
• Defining high combined energy burdens
• Findings
  • Combined household energy burdens
  • Quarterly burdens
• Discussion
  • Is the consumer expenditure survey the right fit for measuring combined energy burdens?
  • Energy efficiency policy implications
  • Future research

A copy of the Report can be downloaded here.