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

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 feminiza

SUBMITTER: Chen CF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8991312 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature