How to help with energy bills

crisis unleashed by Russia’s war on Ukraine is crushing Europe’s consumers and . Natural-gas prices are eight times higher than they were last summer and traders expect precious little respite over the coming year. are nearly twice their level in January 2021. The result is rampant rises in living costs. By October a household in Britain could be paying more than £3,500 ($4,200) a year for energy, more than three times last year’s bill, leading the Bank of England to warn of inflation passing 13% before the year is out. Annual consumer-price inflation rates are already in double digits in half of the euro area’s member countries. Alas, politicians are botching their response. To stop rising wholesale energy prices passing through fully to consumers’ bills, many have resorted to price caps and energy-tax reductions. Liz Truss, a Conservative politician vying to become Britain’s next prime minister, is talking of cutting payroll taxes. But price ceilings do nothing to reduce energy use and tax cuts will not protect the poorest. With no immediate end to the crunch in sight, it is time for some hard-headed thinking about how to live with higher energy bills.