With unprofitable coal and nuclear plants continuing to shut down amidst current administration support, the personal-finance website WalletHub released its report on 2019’s most and least energy-expensive states.
For a better understanding of Americans’ energy costs relative to their location and consumption habits, WalletHub compared the average monthly energy bills in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia using a special formula that accounts for the following residential energy types: electricity, natural gas, motor fuel and home heating oil, the report stated.
The dollar amount listed beside each state above reflects its average monthly energy bill.
The most energy-expensive states were: Connecticut (1, $373), Wyoming (2, $363), Alaska (3, $359), Georgia (4, $344), Massachusetts (5, $336), Indiana (6, $333), Alabama (7, $333), Maine (8, $332), Oklahoma (9, $331) and New Hampshire (10, $329).
The least energy-expensive states were: Iowa (42, $283(, New York (43, $284), Tennessee (44, $283), Illinois (45, $281), Hawaii (46, $279), Arkansas (47, $275), Louisiana (48, $271), Washington (49, $265), Colorado (50, $251) and District of Columbia (51, $204).
The best versus worst breakdown revealed:
- Hawaii has the lowest average monthly consumption of electricity per consumer, 481 kWh, which is 2.9 times lower than in Louisiana, the highest at 1,416 kWh.
- Washington has the lowest average retail price for electricity, $0.0966 per kWh, which is 3.1 times lower than in Hawaii, the highest at $0.2950 per kWh.
- Montana has the lowest average residential price for natural gas, $7.62 per 1,000 cubic feet, which is 5.1 times lower than in Hawaii, the highest at $38.88 per 1,000 cubic feet.
- The District of Columbia has the lowest average monthly motor-fuel consumption per driver, 22.52 gallons, which is 3.3 times lower than in Wyoming, the highest at 74.25 gallons.
- In Northeastern states, between 9 percent and 62 percent of households use heating oil to heat their homes, compared with less than 3 percent of households in the rest of the U.S.