Localized energy burden, concentrated disadvantage, and the feminization of energy poverty

Chien-Fei Chen; Jimmy Feng; Nikki Luke; Cheng-Pin Kuo; Joshua S Fu

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104139

Localized energy burden, concentrated disadvantage, and the feminization of energy poverty

iScience. 2022 Mar 24;25(4):104139. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104139. eCollection 2022 Apr 15.

Authors

Chien-Fei Chen¹, Jimmy Feng², Nikki Luke², Cheng-Pin Kuo³, Joshua S Fu^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Ultra-wide-area Resilient Electrical Energy Transmission Networks (CURENT), University of Tennessee, TN, USA.
² Department of Geography, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
³ Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
⁴ Computational Science and Engineering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.

Abstract

Energy burden directly influences households' health and safety. Amid a growing literature on energy, poverty and gender remains relatively understudied. We evaluate socioeconomic, geographic, and health factors as multidimensions of concentrated disadvantage that magnify energy burden in the United States over time. We show that the energy burden is more pronounced in disadvantaged counties with larger elderly, impoverished, disabled people, and racialized populations where people do not have health insurance. Neighborhoods with households headed by women of color (especially Black women) are more likely to face a high energy burden, which worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although energy costs are often regarded as an individual responsibility, these findings illustrate the feminization of energy poverty and indicate the need for an intersectional and interdisciplinary framework in devising energy policy directed to households with the most severe energy burden.

Keywords: Energy management; Energy policy; Energy resources; Energy systems.