Energy Impoverishment: Addressing Capitalism's New Driver of Inequality

A rapidly growing number of households are suffering from energy impoverishment caused by escalating electricity prices, low income, and poor housing energy efficiency. Many households are experiencing considerable hardship in paying energy bills. This manifestation of inequality has followed the global restructuring of electricity sectors, and its incidence has become widespread across Europe, the UK, the US, New Zealand, and Australia. Current policy measures generally resemble "retrospective compensation" rather than addressing the root cause of the problem. This paper argues for a new policy approach that reconfigures electricity price formation in order to address this increasingly embedded social phenomenon.