Pitt, Orange counties have least affordable energy prices

Orange and Pitt counties are the least affordable counties in the state for energy, according to the John Locke Foundation’s Energy Poverty Index (EPI), which ranks all 100 counties on how much more people in poverty pay for energy bills related to a benchmark. 

“In recent months, rising energy costs, especially including electricity rates, have captured headlines and policymakers’ attention in North Carolina,” Jon Sanders, director of the Center for Food Power and Life at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal. “It’s good that the problem is finally getting through to their elected officials, but the bad news is that electricity rate changes lag policy changes. So with the exception of fuel-rate adjustments, the problems that have become evident of late were set in motion a few years before.”

This county-by-county energy poverty index measures how much households living in poverty spend on electricity bills relative to the widely accepted affordability benchmark that no more than 6.5% of household expenditures should be devoted to energy costs, according to Sanders. Two county rankings are generated utilizing this metric: one for households served by the state’s three investor-owned utilities and another for households served by municipal utilities or electric membership cooperatives.

According to the investor-owned map, Pitt County has an average annual cost of $1,608 and a median household income of $11,615. Orange County ranks No. 3 on the investor map with an average annual cost of $1,478 and a median poverty income of $10,973.

On the map reflecting municipalities and co-ops, Orange County has an average yearly cost of $1,828, and Pitt County ranks No. 13 on the same map, with an average yearly cost of $1,659.

Under the investor-owned map, Union County ranks as the most affordable at No. 97, as no data is available for Watauga, Ashe, and Alleghany counties. Union County has an average annual cost of $1,341 with a median poverty income of $16,000.

The map for municipalities and co-ops ranks Graham County as the most affordable at No. 95, as no data is available for Swain, Henderson, Clay, New Hanover, and Tyrell counties. The average annual cost in Graham County is $938, with a median poverty income of $12,775. 

“Energy is an inescapable feature of life today,” said Sanders. “When the cost of energy goes up, people cannot simply shift to something else. For low-income households especially, they face make tough choices, including lowering how much they’re able to pay toward credit cards. Policymakers should be more cognizant of how important it is to keep energy costs low, so they should limit policy interventions that require utilities to make expensive changes and resource choices that raise rates.”

According to the latest Household Debt Report from WalletHub, more than half of Americans admit their households are struggling with debt, with 56% saying rising energy prices are driving them into debt. Two out of five individuals expected their debt to increase over the next 12 months. 

In addition, 40% said they believed that financial debt is impacting health and 67% said they believed that better budgeting would solve debt problems, yet one in five Americans said they were not willing to sacrifice fun to get out of debt. 

At the end of 2025, total household debt was $18.78 trillion, $754 billion below the all-time high, with the average household debt being $155,594. In 2025, household debt rose by $257 billion, up 810% since 2024. 

“Pitt, Orange counties have least affordable energy prices” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.