During the summer electricity rates tend to skyrocket, but saving money shouldn't be as difficult.

Joey Estrada, with Lochridge Priest, shares some tips on what you should do before the temperatures get too high.

“Have a technician come out, check the refrigerate levels, check your system to make sure it’s running. Make sure your fan motor is running the way it should be,” Estrada says.

Estrada says you want to have a technician come in to take a look at your A/C unit to make sure everything is operating the right way.

“First thing you want to check [is] the filter. Make sure you’re keeping a clean filter. That helps the airflow get through as best as possible,” says Estrada.

The U.S. Department of Energy has committed $27 million in funding to for research of wave technology to be transformed into electricity. The main goal is to make it commercially viable.

The DOE on July 7 said the money supports the Biden administration’s efforts “to build a clean energy economy,” along with the president’s target of net-zero carbon emissions from the power sector by 2050.

Grid operators called for decreased electricity usage as several power grids went offline due to rising heat in Texas

According to the current grid conditions on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas website, Texans no longer need to cut back on their electricity use to avoid stressing the electrical grid.

After a week, consumers may return to normal usage of electricity that stressed the grid — and Texans’ anxieties. The ERCOT website said: “There is enough power for current demand,” and an ERCOT spokesperson confirmed the power conservation notice expired at 7 p.m. Friday.

Job recruiters reported a shockingly high number of open jobs, starkly contrasting the desperate times we are in as we recover from the pandemic.

Yet total job gains increased only modestly, according to a Labor Department report issued Tuesday. The figures follow an April jobs report last week that was far weaker than expected, largely because companies appear unable to find the workers they need, even with the unemployment rate elevated at 6.1%.

Job openings rose nearly 8%, to 8.1 million in March, the most on records dating back to December 2000, the government said. Yet overall hiring that month rose less than 4% to 6 million. The hiring number is a gross figure, while the government's jobs report — which said 770,000 jobs were added in March — uses a net total. Tuesday's report is known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS.

The Biden Administration had a dream to make America fully green. In the process, they found out that making this reality was much more difficult than last thought. They now have to find a plan, and stick with it, to make America electric.

Emissions reduction, decarbonization of the U.S. power grid by 2035, and increased electrification in the transportation and building sectors will require an enormous amount of investment from the industry as well as government support.

Many states are experiencing record heat waves, which means that Air Conditioners will be running at full throttle. During the summer months most Americans see an uptick in their electricity bills, and now add that people will be cooped up even longer in their homes due to the pandemic.

The typical household spends roughly $2,000 annually on energy bills, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson told TODAY. The EPA added that air conditioning is the likely culprit for energy bill increases in the summer months. Nearly half of a given home’s total energy bill is dedicated to heating and cooling systems.

It is projected that homeowners could see monthly energy bills rise by 10% based on data collected from renewable energy company Arcadia for those living in cities. Data was collected from energy use by 10,000 customer households across 13 major U.S. cities during March and April.

If you're looking to keep electricity bills down as temperatures soar, try these short- and long-term recommendations from the EPA and other sources.

Temperatures are rising! In order to protect yourself from rising electricity prices, follow these easy tips to help keep you and your wallet cool.

1. FAN YOURSELF

Buying stand, box or ceiling fans is a small investment that can reduce your energy costs. Using fans to help cool your home means you can raise the thermostat setting by 4 degrees without reducing your comfort level. Just remember to turn off the fans when you’re not in the room. They aren’t intended to cool the space — just the people in the space, via the wind, chill effect.

Small business owners were on edge when the administration forced Government contractors to pay $15. Congress is now thinking of raising the wage again, which could change everything.

There is a popular mandate for a $15 federal minimum wage. Nearly two-thirds of Americans support the wage increase, include 40% who “strongly” back the proposal. In Florida, voters passed an amendment last November to raise the minimum wage, now $8.56, to $15 in 2026; it moves to $10 in September.

The loss of money on Monday could have been even worse, but it could have been worse. But, investors are looking to see how American and other airlines recover.

United executives have said recently that bookings are rising ahead of the peak summer vacation season, and they expect that trend to grow stronger as more Americans get vaccinated against COVID-19. The airline predicted that a number of financial measures will improve from the first quarter into the second.

A sudden drop in temperature that was almost a week-long shut down individual units and occasionally entire plants at 25 refineries in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Tennessee.

Six million barrels per day (bpd) of national refining capacity was out of production before refineries in Beaumont, Corpus Christi, and Port Arthur, Texas, began restarting on Feb. 22.

By comparison, Hurricane Harvey idled a fifth of national refining capacity at the end of August 2017.