RI Has The 11th-Highest Energy Costs In The U.S.: WalletHub

PROVIDENCE, RI — Rhode Island has some of the highest energy costs in the country, according to a report from personal finance website WalletHub.

The Ocean State was ranked number 11 overall, with a total monthly energy costs averaging $347. By category, that breaks down as follows:

• Electricity: $132
• Natural Gas: $62
• Motor fuel: $98
• Heating oil: $56

Nearby neighbor Connecticut was ranked the most expensive, averaging $411 per month. Washington, D.C., meanwhile, was named the most affordable, with an average of just $217 in total energy costs per month.

To determine the ranking, WalletHub weighed the average cost for each category with the average monthly consumption for each state.

Deepak Rajagopal, an associate professor of environmental and sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that energy sources tend to impact energy cost discrepancies the most.

"Energy costs vary but usually, it is never really that big even if it seems so," he said. "It is different mainly because the source of energy varies, coal used to be cheapest but dirtiest and solar clean but costly, but this trend has changed but for a host somewhat more involved reasons while clean energy is very cheap at the wholesale level, we pay a lot more at the household level."

See the full ranking on WalletHub's website.