Cathy Kunkel: Legislature can push energy efficiency, lower electric bills

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- What can we do to get electric bills under control in West Virginia? West Virginia's residential electric rates have risen more than 50 percent in the past five years. The burden of high electric bills often falls on the households that can least afford it.

West Virginia still has the seventh lowest residential electric rates in the country, but residents of 26 other states have lower electric bills. That means we are literally throwing money out the windows of our leaky homes. Next door, in Maryland, new houses are built to standards 15 percent more efficient than those in West Virginia. We are ranked 49th in the country for energy efficiency.