According to recent report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, cooling costs are expected to increase nationwide by 7.9%. The report follows forecasts by meteorologists that this summer will be one of Upstate New York’s hottest on record. 

Matthew Huber, professor of geography and the environment, considers the climate crisis a “class conflict” for its impact on working-class people.

“The energy businesses are a very tiny small portion of society that own and make profit off those businesses, and the majority of folks in society don’t own a lot of energy infrastructure,” Huber says. “We really need to kind of create that kind of mass constituency that can take on the power of that small group of people.”

“If we can’t find a way to do decarbonization and climate policy, in addition to materially improving working people’s lives…I really do fear that a lot of working people aren’t going to be that sympathetic to the climate agenda,” Huber says.

Read more in the WRVO article, “Summer heat wave to impact upstate New Yorkers' energy bills.”