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Mid-Atlantic energy costs: three states, every fuel expensive

The Middle Atlantic division — New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — is the rare region where every household fuel prices above the national average. Residential electricity averaged 24.43¢ per kWh in New York, 19.34¢ in New Jersey and 17.77¢ in Pennsylvania in 2024, and the division as a whole hit 25.71¢ in July 2026, up 9.3% on the year. Delivered gas ran $13.21 to $16.58 per Mcf, heating oil clustered around $6.07 to $6.42 a gallon in October 2026, and New Jersey propane, at $4.075 a gallon, was the fourth most expensive in the country.

Electricity, use and bills: EIA-861 Table 5A (2024). Gas: Natural Gas Annual Table 23 (2024). Oil and propane: Heating Oil and Propane Update, week of October 19, 2026, dollars per gallon excluding taxes.

High prices, restrained usage, ordinary bills

The Mid-Atlantic repeats the pattern this site documents in New England, one step milder. All three states use less electricity than the 863 kWh national average month — New York just 571 kWh — because winter heat in this region runs mainly on gas, oil and propane delivered to the home, not on the electric meter. The result is that average electric bills ($128.13 to $145.17) sit close to the U.S. average of $142.26 even though every price is well above it. The electric bill is simply not where a Mid-Atlantic household's energy money mainly goes. RECS puts Middle Atlantic households at 89.0 MMBtu of total site energy a year and $2,162 of spending — the second-highest spending division in the country, behind only New England — once every fuel is counted together.

Delivered fuels carry the winter

Heating oil is a genuinely Mid-Atlantic fuel in a way it is not further south or west: all three states are in EIA's 21-state weekly oil survey, and in the week of October 19, 2026 New York priced at $6.417 a gallon, New Jersey at $6.382 and Pennsylvania at $6.066, against a $6.190 U.S. average. At the standard 275-gallon tank size used on our heating oil guide, those prices are fills of roughly $1,765, $1,755 and $1,668 respectively — arithmetic on the published prices, before any supplier service charges EIA does not publish. Propane spreads wider inside the region: Pennsylvania's $3.163 a gallon sits modestly above the $2.689 national average, while New Jersey's $4.075 and New York's $3.727 reflect the delivered-fuel premium of the New York metro fringe. Gas is the region's relative bargain, with New Jersey at $13.21 per Mcf and Pennsylvania at $13.62 actually below the $14.50 U.S. average — one reason gas conversions have been the region's long-running heating story.

What this winter is forecast to cost

EIA groups the Mid-Atlantic with New England in its Northeast forecast region, and the Winter Fuels Outlook for 2026–27 expects Northeast households to spend, November through March, $879 heating with natural gas (down 14% on last winter), $1,637 with electricity (down 3%) and $1,687 with propane (down 15%), with warmer forecast Northeast weather doing much of the work. Heating oil is the exception nationally: EIA forecasts oil-heated homes — concentrated in the Northeast, including this division's oil households — to spend about $2,115 for the season, up 21%, as a forecast 34% rise in oil prices outweighs the milder weather. For a Mid-Atlantic reader, the practical order of business is therefore fuel-specific: oil households face the price risk this winter, gas households the volume risk of a cold snap, and everyone faces an electricity price that rose faster in this division in July 2026 (up 9.3% year over year) than in most of the country.

Sources: EIA — Electric Sales, Revenue & Average Price 2024, Table 5A (Form EIA-861) · EIA — Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A (July 2026) · EIA — Natural Gas Annual 2024, Table 23 (Form EIA-176) · EIA — Heating Oil and Propane Update (week of October 19, 2026) · EIA — Winter Fuels Outlook, October 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook (published October 6, 2026) · EIA — Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) 2020, Table CE1.1. Last verified: October 2026 — energy prices move with seasons and markets; confirm the current rate on your own bill.

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