The Energy Rights Project conducts multi-sited research, including qualitative surveys, key informant interviews, and policy analysis, to investigate energy vulnerability, energy affordability and energy assistance networks in the Mid-Atlantic region. Over the last twelve months, the research has focused on documenting how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated energy vulnerability and what actions policymakers have taken in response to ever-decreasing energy affordability.
In the social science literature, energy vulnerability is defined as a condition where people or quote “household[s] [are] unable to achieve sufficient access to affordable and reliable energy services, and as a consequence [are] in danger of harm to health and/or wellbeing” (Day & Walker, 2013) end quote. Interviewing and surveying Philadelphians has brought to light the fact that, while it seems like everyone should have access to energy, there are many barriers to consistently accessing energy that is affordable. Utility assistance policies, while helpful for some, set income guidelines that disqualify many working families from subsidies to help cover their monthly utility bills.
With the pandemic-induced economic crisis, being aware of social services and other forms of economic assistance has proven quintessential for struggling families. As of March 2021 around 37 million households in the United States, roughly ⅓ of all households in the country, had overdue utility bills, with arrears totaling more than $27 billion (Liedtke and Bussewitz 2021). That’s an increase from $11 billion in household arrears in 2019. One study found that, on average, household utility debt had reached $850. But in the Mid-Atlantic, energy assistance organizations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are seeing overdue bills as high as $2,000-3,000. Households faced with increased expenses in living have had to make choices between buying food, paying for rent or utilities, or keeping up with other expenses. Households that had never faced such difficulties before, and are in such a position due to the pandemic, are unfamiliar with longstanding federal programs, such as the Low Income Household Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and are, thus, finding difficulties in navigating energy assistance networks.
Energy assistance networks are not very well known to many energy users. Many energy users are also infrequently aware of the protections against shutoffs that are in place between November and April, each year, for gas and electrically-powered heat. These protections include cash assistance on utility bills and having utilities restored for qualifying households. Households can apply to assistance programs either through their utility or at Neighborhood Energy Centers (NECs). Neighborhood Energy Centers are organizations where residents can learn about and apply for energy assistance programs. Philadelphia currently has 14 NECs serving its residents and aiding with issues of energy vulnerability, food insecurity, housing insecurity, etc.
The information here discussed was collected via a survey administered to more than 200 energy users in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania over a twelve-month period. The first round of surveying included energy users recruited by students in The Energy Vulnerability Lab, a field school training students in ethnographic data collection methods specifically related to energy and energy networks. Questions in the survey instrument addressed utility insecurity both before and after COVID-19.
NECs are doing a tremendous amount of work not only because they are providing people with greater degrees of energy literacy and provide better connections to housing resources, family services, but they are currently being cut out by utility companies and if they are cut out it is to the detriment of the community.
Cite as
Alison Kenner, Briana Leone and Andrew Rosenthal, "The Energy Rights Project - 2021 CoAS Presentation", contributed by , The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 2 July 2021, accessed 20 April 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/energy-rights-project-2021-coas-presentation
Critical Commentary
The Energy Rights Project conducts multi-sited research, including qualitative surveys, key informant interviews, and policy analysis, to investigate energy vulnerability, energy affordability and energy assistance networks in the Mid-Atlantic region. Over the last twelve months, the research has focused on documenting how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated energy vulnerability and what actions policymakers have taken in response to ever-decreasing energy affordability.
In the social science literature, energy vulnerability is defined as a condition where people or quote “household[s] [are] unable to achieve sufficient access to affordable and reliable energy services, and as a consequence [are] in danger of harm to health and/or wellbeing” (Day & Walker, 2013) end quote. Interviewing and surveying Philadelphians has brought to light the fact that, while it seems like everyone should have access to energy, there are many barriers to consistently accessing energy that is affordable. Utility assistance policies, while helpful for some, set income guidelines that disqualify many working families from subsidies to help cover their monthly utility bills.
With the pandemic-induced economic crisis, being aware of social services and other forms of economic assistance has proven quintessential for struggling families. As of March 2021 around 37 million households in the United States, roughly ⅓ of all households in the country, had overdue utility bills, with arrears totaling more than $27 billion (Liedtke and Bussewitz 2021). That’s an increase from $11 billion in household arrears in 2019. One study found that, on average, household utility debt had reached $850. But in the Mid-Atlantic, energy assistance organizations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are seeing overdue bills as high as $2,000-3,000. Households faced with increased expenses in living have had to make choices between buying food, paying for rent or utilities, or keeping up with other expenses. Households that had never faced such difficulties before, and are in such a position due to the pandemic, are unfamiliar with longstanding federal programs, such as the Low Income Household Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and are, thus, finding difficulties in navigating energy assistance networks.
Energy assistance networks are not very well known to many energy users. Many energy users are also infrequently aware of the protections against shutoffs that are in place between November and April, each year, for gas and electrically-powered heat. These protections include cash assistance on utility bills and having utilities restored for qualifying households. Households can apply to assistance programs either through their utility or at Neighborhood Energy Centers (NECs). Neighborhood Energy Centers are organizations where residents can learn about and apply for energy assistance programs. Philadelphia currently has 14 NECs serving its residents and aiding with issues of energy vulnerability, food insecurity, housing insecurity, etc.
The information here discussed was collected via a survey administered to more than 200 energy users in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania over a twelve-month period. The first round of surveying included energy users recruited by students in The Energy Vulnerability Lab, a field school training students in ethnographic data collection methods specifically related to energy and energy networks. Questions in the survey instrument addressed utility insecurity both before and after COVID-19.
NECs are doing a tremendous amount of work not only because they are providing people with greater degrees of energy literacy and provide better connections to housing resources, family services, but they are currently being cut out by utility companies and if they are cut out it is to the detriment of the community.