Challenges from ever-rising energy prices and past-due utility bills are looming for low- and middle-income American families. According to Henry Shelton, director of the George Wiley Center, in 2009, some 31,000 households in Rhode Island will have their utilities shut off, and the effort to juggle energy bills and mortgages is helping push some homeowners into foreclosure.

With the prices for electricity and gas becoming more and more volatile, we must take action to establishing our energy independence as a country.

Read the full article in the New York Times here.