U.S. Utility Giants Rake In $14-B In Profits As Millions Can't Pay Bills

An analysis released showed that the nine largest energy utility companies in the US raked in nearly $14 billion in combined profits during the first three quarters of this year—and dished out roughly $11 billion to their wealthy shareholders—as tens of millions of US households struggled to pay their utility bills due to soaring costs, Jake Johnson and Common Dreams reported for AlterNet.

Photo Insert: NextEra Energy, Duke Energy, Southern Co., Dominion Energy, Constellation Energy, Eversource Energy, Entergy Corp., DTE Energy, and CMS Energy Corp. brought in $13.8 billion in the first nine months of this fiscal year.

The watchdog Accountable.US found that NextEra Energy, Duke Energy, Southern Co., Dominion Energy, Constellation Energy, Eversource Energy, Entergy Corp., DTE Energy, and CMS Energy Corp. brought in $13.8 billion in the first nine months of this fiscal year.

The firms, the nine largest in the US by market capitalization, returned over $11.2 billion to shareholders during that period in the form of dividends and stock buybacks.

The utility giants' massive profits have come at a cost to US households, roughly 20 million of which are behind on their utility payments as providers continue to raise rates across the US, pushing home energy costs to unaffordable levels and prompting warnings of a "tsunami of shutoffs."

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has estimated that utilities have shut off households' power 440,000 times across 15 states that have made their rates publicly available, a large increase from last year.

"Well-heeled utility company CEOs are holding consumers' feet to the fire with exorbitant energy prices," Liz Zelnick, director of Accountable.US's Economic Security and Corporate Power program, said in a statement Tuesday.

"Not because they have to, judging by their own high profits and generous giveaways to wealthy investors—but because they can with colder weather on the horizon. To prey on families who use a necessary service with unreasonable and unjustified rate hikes is corporate greed at its worst," Zelnick added.

The Accountable.US analysis shows that the same large utility companies raking in huge profits and paying their executives' massive compensation packages are driving price increases nationwide.

Southern Co.'s Georgia subsidiary, for one, "had a near-12% rate hike approved in June 2022—and in August 2022, its Tennessee subsidiary was granted a rate hike that would result in typical monthly home heating bills rising by about 25%," the analysis notes.

NBC News reported in October that "nationwide, investor-owned utilities have requested rate increases amounting to nearly $12 billion from the beginning of the year through the end of August."

Zelnick argued that utility giants' price hikes are part of a broader trend of corporate price-gouging, a practice that companies frequently excuse by pointing to higher overall inflation throughout the economy.

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