Within the historical context of attempting to provide cheap energy to countries of the European Coal and Steel Community, this article presents the negative effects for households of the current EU policy to combat “global warming”. The definition of income poverty is outlined based on a relative threshold of 60% of the households’ disposable income median with the social exclusion indicator adopted by Eurostat. Poland’s place in the poverty hierarchy is presented and compared to other EU countries. The analysis focuses attention on the drastic differences in poverty thresholds (in euro and in purchasing power standard PPS) between old and new EU members. The data shows the scale of increasing poverty and income inequalities in Poland (documented by the ratio of the V. and I. households’ income quintile and the Gini index). It provides a comparison of households in Poland and the EU with attention paid to the share of energy and fuels in household spending. The article also reviews the history of rising energy prices given in euros. It draws attention to the exceptionally high level of energy prices in Poland in PPS. Here, the central concept is the danger of fuel poverty, and forecasts of growth in the share of energy and fuels in the budgets of household expenditures are presented in light of further increases in energy prices due to the implementation of the energy-climate package. The article provides criticism of the use of relative income poverty and energy poverty thresholds. Based on this analysis, the article proposes the use of absolute indicators based on a minimum basket of goods necessary for household survival and the minimum amount of energy needed to ensure an acceptable standard of household heating and normal operation.