As the war in the Middle East continues, voters are raising concerns about expenses such as the price of electricity and to fill up at the gas station.
WAMC's Lower Hudson Valley Bureau Chief, Elias Guerra, spoke with Bill Haupt, Christy Hendrix-Davis, and Gwen Howis in Wurtsboro, Sullivan County at Stewart's about how they're feeling about the costs.
Guerra: I'm asking folks about the upcoming elections and energy is a big topic: cost of energy, oil and electricity. What are your thoughts?
Haupt: I'm like the average American, that I want prices to return to palatable prices. So, whoever's got the best idea to get this accomplished.
Guerra: Do you have an idea about who you are voting for in the midterms? You mentioned whoever has the best ideas.
Haupt: I'm an independent and again the people in control now, I don't think are doing a good job, so I think I'm gonna go with the other side, go vote Democratic just because, I feel it was better off with them.
To me, it's more or less, ‘who is not as bad as the other?’ It's not so much, ‘I'm really good with what these guys are doing.’ I just think they'll do less harm. I feel the current GOP and administration is really for the billionaire class. And they're just trying to con everyone else.
Guerra: You know the war in Iran has also sparked a lot of conversation about American dependence on oil and renewables as an alternative. Do you feel like it has changed your mind at all or reinforced any thoughts you might have had?
Howis: So, I think my issue is really, especially in New York, we need to focus on the control that places like Central Hudson, [and] a lot of the electric companies have. Because I know last year, I had an electric bill that was over two thousand dollars.
So yes, I would love the ability to switch from a car that uses strictly gas, but then New York needs to focus on their control of how much electric costs. Because there's a lot of us that would switch to hybrids. Or mix and match, but you're kind of trying to choose between two evils. The one you know and the one you don't.
Guerra: What would you like to see elected officials do in terms of managing Central Hudson and the electric companies?
Howis: So, I think that there should be a cap on a certain amount that they can charge for something that we have to have. It's not like it's something that we as a society could live without anymore. You know, we all rely on electric[ity]. We all rely on gas and oil. So there needs to be that cap—We need to close the gap between, you know, the low income versus the high income.
Guerra: I’m asking people their thoughts on energy and how they are feeling right now with the cost of fuel for cars and--
Hendrix-Davis: It's Trump's fault. I blame Trump. He killed people to raise the prices of our fuel and--just horrible. My electric bill is through the roof, unaffordable. I had to go on a budget plan. I live in a two-bedroom home. There's three of us and my electric bill is almost a thousand dollars a month. That's insane. It's insane because we conserve. We do our best: all the fancy light bulbs, everything. So, it's bad. And people are protesting all the good things like solar energy.
Guerra: Why do you feel like it has been so complicated? You were talking about solar and people are really against it.
Hendrix-Davis: People don't like change. And people are very mistrusting, I guess. And unfortunately, our country right now is in fight or flight mode. So, no matter what it is, there are people that just wanna fight. They don't want to find an answer. They just wanna argue. They wanna fight. They wanna bring out the worst in others and it sucks. It sucks. People need to kind of get back to before the internet, before cell phones and just talk about things.
Let's stop going online, stop reading the comments, stop believing everything you read and let's talk about it. Let's get the facts. And then once you have the facts, maybe you'll think better of it.
