{"id":888670,"date":"2026-10-20T09:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T09:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/888670\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T09:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T09:06:12","slug":"as-us-hottest-summer-cools-many-face-staggering-power-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/888670\/","title":{"rendered":"As US’ Hottest Summer Cools, Many Face Staggering Power Bills"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n America’s power problem shows up in Genia Weitz’s mailbox as a $1,340 electric bill she has nine days to pay\u2014more than she brings in a month. Writing for the New York Times<\/a>, Eli Saslow zooms in on McAlester, Okla., to show how the hottest US summer on record is turning into a fall shutoff season, as consumer protections against shutoffs during peak heat expire and accumulated bills and disconnection notices land. About one in six US households is now behind on energy bills, and in Oklahoma, utility PSO says it’s juggling extreme heat, grid upgrades, and massive new demands from data centers\u2014even as families like Weitz’s shrink their lives to one cooled room. Weitz depends on an oxygen machine, and says without it, “I don’t think I’d last a single night.” \n <\/p>\n


\n Saslow follows three generations trying different survival strategies: a disabled grandmother seeking a doctor’s note to delay shutoff; her daughter, now a white-collar worker, taking on debt for more AC she still can’t afford; and a young mother on a prepaid plan, feeding her account a few dollars at a time as the power flicks on and off. Churches, charities, and neighbors are overwhelmed. For the in-depth look at how a utility bill becomes a crisis, read Saslow’s full article in the New York Times<\/a>. \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" America’s power problem shows up in Genia Weitz’s mailbox as a $1,340 electric bill she has nine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[12832,28,7258,48630,26197,6956,9600],"class_list":["post-888670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-affordability","tag-business","tag-data-centers","tag-electric-grid","tag-extreme-heat","tag-extreme-weather","tag-oklahoma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}