ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Lately, bill payers in Allentown and beyond say they’re feeling the sticker shock of climbing electric statements.
“That was a dramatic change in the budget for sure,” Melissa Sterner said.
Sterner’s small business, Sterner Stems, doesn’t need much space in its downtown Allentown location. Still, Sterner says, she noticed a considerable increase.
“A huge hike,” she said. “Like overnight, it was one amount and then next night it went up by a third.”
Sterner says the bill is even higher at her South Whitehall Township home. And so is Heather Toolan’s, who also lives in South Whitehall Township.
“I would say around 170, something like that,” Toolan said. “Now I’m definitely up in like the 240s. Yeah that’s quite an increase.”
Toolan says for the first time ever, she had to start a payment plan. Others have faced tougher choices.
“I spoke with a family that two kids,” Justin Grimshaw, Assistant Business Manager of IBEW Local 375, said. “The decision they decided to make was, they were going to cut back on groceries so they could keep the heat on in their house.”
Grimshaw joined two democratic lawmakers — Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk and Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel — at the IBEW Local 375 office in Allentown Thursday morning to tell the public that electric bills are up 10 to 20 percent this past year for residents.
The local democratic officials say the rising electric bills are caused by one bigger bill: specifically, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Signed last July, it targets clean energy subsidies and tax credits, rolling back the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
The democratic lawmakers argue that those clean energy initiatives getting cut were saving Americans thousands of dollars.
“As of December, they basically gutted all the clean energy tax credits that were available to home owners to put solar panels on their roofs to install heat pumps,” Siegel said. “And on average, those can save families $2200 dollars a year in energy costs.”
Tuerk and Siegel called on constituents to call out local Republican Congressman Ryan Mackenzie and President Trump to reverse the changes.
In response, Arnaud Armstrong, a spokesperson for Mackenzie sent 69 News the following statement:
“Congressman Mackenzie has prioritized an all-of-the-above energy strategy that unleashes all of our nation’s resources, including renewables, nuclear, and fossil fuels. After the failure of the Biden Administration’s one-size-fits-all policy — which caused household energy prices to soar by over 20% — Congress[sic] Mackenzie is working to expand domestic energy capacity and deliver the relief that local families deserve. These efforts have helped to achieve the lowest gas prices since covid and the record domestic energy production needed to provide long-term relief.”