Why your utility bills are out of control.

It's not just the Arctic blast.

One in five Americans can't afford their heating bills this winter as people are blindsided by utility costs.

When I find that California story, I'll go back to it.

So let me read this to you.

I'll read both of them because they kind of go hand in hand.

And then Brandon and Tom, I'm coming to you with this.

Energy costs are surging nationwide and out-stripping overall inflation.

Last year, consumer prices rose 2.7%.

Electricity costs went 6.7%.

The primary heating source in the Northeast was up 7.4% and gas spiked 10.8%. Why aging infrastructure,

many of the components that go into delivering power were built more than 50 years ago

and are nearing the end of their natural life, the cost of replacing and updating technology

like wires, poles, transformers, and

towers ultimately end up being passed on to consumers.

Battle Group, a consultancy that worked with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory last year

to identify factors influencing retail electricity prices, estimates that spending on aging

power transmission infrastructure has top $10 billion.

And it goes into explaining a couple different things.

One of them is climate change they talk about.

The other one is natural gas price swings and then data center demand.

And the last one talking about one in five Americans can afford their heating bills because of what's going

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