LONGVIEW, Texas — With the heatwave East Texas is in, sky high electricity bills are making matters worse for East Texans.
One Longview resident opened his most recent electricity bill to find he’d been charged more than $700 to keep the lights on.
Other Upshur Rural Electric Cooperative customers are seeing the same thing. Marketing communications manager Tony McCullough said he feels their pain.
“How are some people on limited incomes with families making this work," McCullough asked. "It's like, do I have to make the decision to buy groceries or to put gas in my car? Am I going to work or pay my electric bill? That is a major concern right now."
He said the high bills are a product supply shortages, inflation and the cost they pay for electricity on the front end.
Just about everything that could happen to make prices surge has.
McCullough suggested the most effective ways to lower electricity bills are to use less energy, such as consider changing out your lightbulbs to LED bulbs, close your blinds during the day and update your insulation.
More summer energy saving tips can be found here.
As for the bills already send out, McCullough said URECC will do whatever they can to work with their customers.