Americans can’t pay their heat bill anymore

When I rented a house in the New York suburban area, I was surprised that house had no insulation. In winter we had an enormous fuel consumption and in summer a high electricity bill for cooling.  According to European building standard our new home was a shed and not a house. However, with energy cost very low, Americans really did nor care. Now the situation is totally different. Especially poor people cannot pay their energy bill anymore. Even worse US does not have widespread knowhow to build or upgrade low energy houses. In Germany most advanced family homes have zero energy consumption, advanced homes consume less than 300 gallons of oil in the winter season.  In US especially poor and middle class Americans are trapped. They can’t pay their energy bills anymore but also cannot finance insulation upgrades.  They only solution seems to live in a single room with a Franklin stove much like in good old days.