It’s official: The Meltdown is as reliable as AT&T, which experienced nationwide service outages for most of Thursday, but we’re more reliable than the Alabama Supreme Court. We’re coming to you this Friday morning rather than our usual Thursday afternoon due to some technical issues that I think happened because Mercury is in Pisces. Or whatever.

While losing internet and cell service may seem like a mild inconvenience to most of us, there are often severe consequences. You may not be able to call friends, family, or certain services in an emergency. Telehealth medical providers become useless and even in-person visits to the hospital could be cancelled if your charts cannot be accessed. You also won’t be able to read this newsletter or other great Reckon stories.

But what about when traditional utilities like electricity, drinking water, natural gas, wastewater and trash collection fail?

The consequences are surprisingly broad, affecting everything from businesses and emergency services to public health and the environment. These disruptions can cause serious illnesses and even fatalities, trigger public health crises, and exacerbate individual mental health issues. They can even elevate crime rates and impede local economies. Some repercussions are so unexpected that they’re only just being discovered.

During the years-long water contamination crisis in Jackson, Miss., researchers noted a 10% increase in school absence rates after a drinking water alert was sent to residents, according to a 2023 Brown University study.

“These findings show how chronic exposure to contaminated water over time can negatively affect the trajectory of a child’s life,” said lead author Erica Walker, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Brown.

And yet, research shows that utilities are less reliable and more expensive than ever.

This week in The Meltdown, I’m jumping, for now, ankle-deep into the complex world of utilities ahead of a joint March 13 panel between Reckon and the Texas Tribune, where we’ll discuss extreme weather, utility rate hikes, and quality of life in the U.S.

Before you read on, please feel free to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And share this newsletter with your friends if you think they’ll enjoy it.

Drizzle

While utilities sound like the most boring thing in the world, they are fundamental to your quality of life, from your wallet to your health. When they fail, they often hit the most vulnerable populations the hardest, exacerbating existing inequalities. Those with fewer resources are less able to cope with and recover from the impacts of the failures, leading to a widening gap between different socioeconomic groups.

For example, the big Texas freeze in 2021 saw the power fail for five million people, while outages affected 11 million in total for up to three days. One study noted significant disparity in the extent and duration of power outages experienced by low-income and minority groups, suggesting inequality in the management and implementation of the power outage.

Nearly 250 people died, most from hypothermia. A separate study, counting the number of excess deaths for that time of year, determined 702 people had died. The collective power costs to customers soared to $52.6 billion even though the state power provider ERCOT generated far less power. The upcoming panel will discuss the complicated reasons for that. But utilities are also deeply political and a major piece of the economic machine that drives this country along.

Every state has a commission that regulates utilities. The commission’s primary job is to set fair and reasonable rates and ensure the utilities are reliable and adequate.

The commissioners in each state are influential people. Often, they are the barrier between the public and what profit power companies can make. As you can imagine, the relationship between the commissions and the power companies is often questioned. For example, the commission in Alabama allowed four rate increases in 2022.

Since then, bills have continued to soar to become among the highest in the country. It’s not always clear why rates increase, but sometimes there are clues. Twinkle Cavanaugh, chair of the Alabama Public Service Commission, once tweeted simply “I love coal.” The commission’s ties to Alabama Power are infamous. When asked why bills have been much higher in recent years, the commission didn’t say anything about Alabama Power and its parent company’s huge profits. They said it was down to President Joe Biden’s war on fossil fuels. Clues.

Touch Grass

If the increasing costs of utilities and other expenses stretch your budget thin, try some budgeting tips.

Envelope system budget: Use cash for all spending, dividing money into envelopes for different categories. When an envelope is empty, spending in that category stops, promoting discipline and preventing overspending.

50/30/20 budget: Simplify budgeting by allocating 50% of income to needs, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings/debt. Adjust percentages to fit personal goals, ideal for beginners or those with a straightforward financial situation.

No-budget budget: Monitor overall spending rather than categorizing, ensuring expenses don’t exceed income. Use banking apps to track balances and avoid overdrafts, fitting for those confident in managing spending without detailed budgeting.

Compost Dump

Lastly, let’s talk about something interesting I read earlier this week that I think relates to how people, politicians and corporations see the environment and climate change.

Ethical fading by itself is a process where the ethical considerations of a decision are overlooked or undervalued, leading to unethical choices. You can apply it to pretty much anything. As individuals and corporations focus on immediate gains and conveniences, such as profits from fossil fuels or crap we don’t need from Amazon, the moral responsibility to protect the environment fades into the background. This disconnect leads to increasingly harmful practices despite knowing their long-term impacts on the environment and future generations, exacerbating the climate crisis.

With that said, I do not love coal.

Reckon is excited to partner with the nonprofit politics and public policy newsroom, Texas Tribune, for an upcoming panel discussion on the intersection of extreme weather, utility rate hikes and quality of life in the U.S. “Spring Awakening: A look at how climate catastrophe impacts the cost of living,” will be co-hosted by Reckon climate reporter Christopher Harress (hey, that’s me!) and Texas Tribune energy reporter Emily Foxhall, and feature Capital B climate and environment reporter Adam Mahoney. Moderated by Texas Tribune editor Dave Harmon, the panel will focus on the Texas freeze of 2021 and how it reflects the ongoing inequalities that directly reflect climate disaster and its unrelenting impacts on residents. “Spring Awakening” streams live on YouTube on Wednesday, March 13 at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT.

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See you next week.