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Title: Estimated Household Costs for Home Energy Use

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2008

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Abstract: Taken together, all Alaska households, at all incomes levels, typically spend an estimated 4.7% of their income for home energy, compared with 2.8% in 2000. But the variation across regions and income levels is big. Anchorage households in general spend the lowest percentage of income for energy-but the share among the poorest households was up from 5.5% in 2000 to 8.7% in 2008. Among the wealthiest Anchorage households, the share rose from 1.4% to 2%. Natural gas generates electricity and provides home-heating fuel for most Anchorage households (as Figure 2 shows). Prices of natural gas have risen sharply in recent years, but on an energy-equivalent basis, natural gas is still much less expensive than diesel (also called fuel oil). Also, incomes in Anchorage tend to be higher than in most rural places, especially in the most remote areas. Households in other large and road-system communities typically spend-depending on their income level-anywhere from about 3% to 18% of income for home energy. That compares with about 2% to 9% in 2000. Households in some of these places have access to natural gas, but more than half rely on diesel. Many of those communities can get fuel delivered by road, which is generally less expensive than delivery by air or water. Remote rural households, which rely mainly on diesel and can get fuel only by water or air, spend by far the biggest share of income for home energy. A recent ISER study found that prices for diesel in rural areas vary by as much as 100%, depending on how far the fuel has to travel, how difficult it is to reach specific communities, the amount of local storage capacity, the condition of local moorage and unloading equipment, and other factors. 3 Remote households with the lowest incomes face the highest costs for home energy-an estimated 47% of their income, compared with about 16% in 2000. Remote households with higher incomes must spend an estimated 6% to 13% of their incomes for home energy. Keep in mind that incomes in some remote areas-especially southwestern Alaska-are much lower than the state average. In 2005, for example, per capita incomes in southwest Alaska were roughly one third to one half below the state average.

Url: https://pubs.iseralaska.org/media/05fd51ef-bfa6-4d87-a343-b2855e75e579/LLFuelcostupdatefinal.pdf

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Authors: Haley, Sharman; Saylor, Ben; Szymoniak, Nick

Publisher: University of Alaska Anchorage

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Natural Resource Management, Other

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