Reprinted from the Saporta Report article on March 21, 2024 by Mark Lannaman.
Last Thursday, researchers from Georgia Tech released a report titled “Energy Burdens of Black Households in Georgia” that analyzed the disproportionate effects of energy burdens on Black households in the state and its ramifications.
The report, more than 40 pages, is divided into seven sections that look at the problem of energy burden in Black households from a number of angles, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The main statistical study used around 1,800 households for the analysis.
Energy burden is defined as the percentage of a household’s monthly income that is spent on energy costs, namely electricity and natural gas. Previous studies have shown that the Southeast tends to have higher rates of energy burden than other parts of the country.
This report reveals that Black households tend to have higher energy burdens than similar White households. Part of the reason is due to the legacies of racism that still permeate aspects of society today, like where Black neighborhoods are found, access to resources, quality of housing units, energy efficiency and more. The report dives into this with the section titled “Historical and current impacts of structural racism on energy burden in Georgia.”
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