Latest news with #energycrisis
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Pensioner is hit with £24,000 electricity bill... and ordered to pay back £2,000 a WEEK
A pensioner has been hit with a whopping £24,010 electricity bill for a house that is hardly used thanks to an allegedly faulty meter. Lin Lawler, who owns Grange Farmhouse in Hainford, Norfolk, uses the five-bedroom house and adjoining annex as a holiday rental for just over 100 days a year. But despite the limited use, energy supplier SmartestEnergy has issued the huge bill for the past year's consumption - and will cut off her power unless she agrees to pay it back at £2,022 per week, she claimed. Ms Lawler, 70, said: 'I just can't afford it. They've got their hands around my throat and their hands in my pocket.' Ms Lawler's holiday let - which is available for £2,195 for seven nights - is situated on a 50-acre farm with a koi pond. She was stunned when she started receiving monthly bills totalling thousands of pounds and complained numerous times to the company's customer service team, she says. In February of this year, the company charged her £3,217 for a month's worth of electricity. Ms Lawler got in touch with the Energy Ombudsman who was unable to find enough evidence to show the meter was over-recording. But despite the limited use, energy supplier SmartestEnergy has issued the huge bill for the past year's consumption - and will cut off her power unless she agrees to pay it back at £2,022 per week, she claimed Finally, she says a customer service call handler 'slipped up' by admitting that the company was unable to communicate with her smart meter. In October 2024, engineers were called out to inspect the meter. Ms Lawler recalled: 'One of them said the readings were like that of a factory and I should only be paying about £200 a month, not thousands. 'He said he was condemning the meter as it was faulty and not communicating properly.' The meter was replaced in March, and her bills immediately dropped. This May, she was charged £183, compared to £1,675 the year before. However, SmartestEnergy is still demanding the full £24,000, has cancelled her new cheaper contract, and installed a pre-payment meter. Ms Lawler said: 'If they cut me off, I'll lose my bookings, my income - everything. They'll bankrupt me.' Broadland and Fakenham MP Jerome Mayhew called it 'a crazy case' and pledged to support Ms Lawler. He said: 'I have contacted Smartest Energy to make sure that this case is properly investigated and my team will continue to support Ms Lawler until she gets a successful resolution.' A spokesman for Energy Ombudsman said: 'Energy Ombudsman offers a free and independent service to help resolve disputes between energy suppliers and consumers. 'In the initial complaint we determined that usage at the property was relatively high, but there wasn't enough evidence to show the meter was over-recording. 'We therefore recommended that Ms Lawler request a meter accuracy test. 'Following the completion of the remedies it is clear that Ms Lawler remains in dispute with the supplier and therefore we're now going to look at the matter again.' SmartestEnergy was approached for comment.
New York Times
20 hours ago
- Business
- New York Times
Why Higher Oil Prices May Not Change U.S. Energy Policy
As military actions between Iran and Israel continued, two tankers collided on Tuesday, caught fire and spilled oil in the Gulf of Oman. The incident briefly sent shock waves through the oil market as investors contemplated a closure of the Strait of Hormuz. One estimate found that a closure in the crucial shipping route could result in oil prices soaring to $120 a barrel. So would higher oil prices push more people, or governments, to move away from fossil fuels? Short-term spikes in oil prices might translate into temporary changes in consumption patterns, analysts have said. But they are not likely to have a significant impact on long-term oil production or consumer habits. Oil shocks, often accompanied by increases in gasoline prices, have bedeviled presidents since the Nixon era. But while no one likes paying more for gasoline, big price spikes have not translated into sweeping, long-term changes to domestic energy policy in the United States. To understand why, I spoke to Meg Jacobs, a historian who teaches at Princeton University and the author of 'Panic at the Pump: The Energy Crisis and the Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s.' She pointed to two lessons from the energy crisis of the 1970s. The first lesson from the energy crisis, Jacobs said, is that even though it worried voters, it didn't lead to the development of a more robust domestic energy policy in the United States. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
20 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
Staffordshire pottery sector support 'being looked at urgently'
The government is "urgently" looking at how it can support Staffordshire's pottery industry, the energy secretary has Miliband said the sector was facing "particular challenges" due to global events causing an increase in fossil fuel ceramics firms have collapsed in the wake of rising energy costs, including Stoke-on-Trent-based Royal Stafford and Moorcroft, though the latter has since been bought by the grandson of its a visit to Rocester on Thursday, Miliband told the BBC that ministers were seeking to address some of the issues in the upcoming industrial strategy. "It is something we are urgently looking at," he said. "We do understand some of the challenges the ceramics industry is facing."It's a really important industry, really important for this area and we want to do everything we can to help." The Labour minister put the rising international gas prices down to the "rollercoaster" of recent global events and said it was why his "mission for clean power" was so comments came after Industry Minister Sarah Jones spoke of the importance of the ceramics industry and how the government wanted to support the sector."We know they've been struggling with a number of different challenges and we want to see if we can maintain and support as much as we can," she visit came as the government announced it was expanding sits Warm Home Discount to 2.7m more households, including 270,000 in the West Midlands. Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Housing costs predicted to skyrocket this summer, experts warn
Power bills are rising faster than grocery prices — and experts say it's only going to get worse this summer. Electricity costs jumped 4.5 percent last year — more than double the 2.2 percent rise in grocery prices — and energy analysts warn the surge isn't stopping anytime soon. A mix of soaring natural gas prices, massive utility investments, and a boom in data centers is fueling the spike. And with summer here, the Energy Information Administration predicts Americans will pay about 4 percent more for electricity this season compared to last. Natural gas deliveries to power plants alone are expected to cost 50 percent more through September than they did during the same stretch last year. 'The more we export gas, the more domestic prices will begin to reflect international ones,' Hugh Wynne (Pictured) of Sector & Sovereign Research told the Wall Street Journal .. The average US household is expected to pay $784 in electricity costs between June and September, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association — a 4.2 percent increase from summer 2023. The roots of this crisis trace back to the 2022 energy shock following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While prices briefly cooled, utilities have since raised rates to help cover storm-proofing efforts and wildfire prevention — investments made more expensive by rising labor and materials costs. Homebuyers had already been concerned over fears of an economic downturn before the Energy Information Administration concluded that electricity prices will outplace inflation through next year. Utility rises have also taken its toll on thousands of people like Adam Moore, an Indiana resident who was one of over 2,300 who protested CenterPoint Energy's plans to rise rates. This increased bills by around $5 a month, which the company insisted was needed to cover investments for various things like grid improvements and new solar plants. Meanwhile, data centers are driving a new wave of demand. PJM Interconnection — the nation's largest electric grid operator — expects $9.3 billion in additional costs to be passed on to customers as more data hubs come online. Pennsylvania utility regulators suggested residents consider searching for lower retail rates or conserve energy, since rates are set to rise 5% to 16% at most of its utilities. Even clean energy policy is under pressure. A rollback of tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act could push electricity costs even higher. Bottom line: with inflation-weary Americans already struggling, experts say power bills will likely keep climbing for at least the next 12 to 18 months. 'On both fronts, there's little reason to believe that ratepayers will see easing pressure on their pocketbooks,' said Akshat Kasliwal of PA Consulting Group.
Khaleej Times
a day ago
- Business
- Khaleej Times
Ailing dollar softens Europe's hit from any oil shock
While oil-importing countries won't fully escape a hit in the event of another energy price shock on Middle East tensions, a period of rare dollar weakness will soften the blow considerably for countries outside America. Most crude prices are denominated in U.S. dollars, so when jumps in the oil price occur during periods of relentless dollar strength, the pain is compounded for regions like Europe. This year's dollar swoon, however, has had the opposite effect, cushioning the impact of the oil price increase set off by the unfolding Israel-Iran war. To be sure, we're still far from 'shock' territory. Dollar-based global crude prices have jumped about 14% since early last week, but they remain well below January peaks and about 7% lower year-over-year. But the impact has been even more benign in Europe, due to the euro's 12% rise against the dollar in the year to date. While the oil price in dollars has all but wiped out its decline for the year so far, the euro price of Brent crude is still down 12% in 2025 and is 20% lower than one year ago. "For oil-importing nations, the greenback's decline offers a crucial reprieve, helping to cushion the blow from soaring oil prices and to limit broader economic fallout," UniCredit strategist Tobias Keller wrote on Wednesday. Should the dollar continue to weaken, it could mitigate the relative economic impact on Europe of any renewed energy price squeeze. That, in turn, could support Europe's performance versus the United States this year and further erode the American exceptionalism narrative fueling extraordinary portfolio flows to the U.S. in recent years. What's more, ongoing dollar weakness amid a fresh energy price retreat would just load more pressure on the European Central Bank to cut interest rates to prevent a big undershoot of its 2% inflation target. Increasingly unstable The dollar/oil link is yet another example of a financial relationship that, in the words of UniCredit's Keller, has become "increasingly unstable" this year. As foreign investors with trillions of dollars invested in U.S. stocks and bonds have started rethinking their dollar exposure in light of America's trade wars, re-worked alliances and upended domestic institutions, the dollar's correlation with stocks, bonds and commodities has shifted. Most obvious is the greenback's apparent loss of its traditional 'safe haven' status during times of great uncertainty and stress, with the dollar falling alongside both stocks and bonds during a turbulent April. The dollar/oil link has become particularly unstable. All else being equal, a stronger dollar should weaken oil prices by sapping non-American demand around the world due to the added local currency cost of a barrel of oil. And the opposite should, in theory, also be true. Yet the cause-and-effect was the other way around in recent years, as a spike in oil prices after Russia's 2022 Ukraine invasion spurred inflation and steep Federal Reserve interest rate rises, followed by a subsequent decline in oil prices and inflation and the beginning of a Fed easing cycle. During that series of events, the dollar moved broadly in tandem with energy prices. When the oil price doubled between mid-2021 and the immediate aftermath of the Ukraine invasion, the dollar index surged by 20%, magnifying the impact of rising energy costs for Europe and elsewhere. But that relationship broke down again last year after the U.S. election, as the dollar initially climbed even as oil prices fell. While the positive correlation resumed after January, the surge in crude this month after the Israel-Iran war broke out has not been matched by a strengthening dollar. Indeed, the greenback is still flirting with new lows. The relationship depends on the backdrop of course. Right now, the primary concern is that a decade of relentless dollar strength now faces a multi-year unwind as trade, economic and investment imbalances are forced to correct. If that prevails, any renewed oil spike would be less severe than last time for the global economy at large.
