With the onset of the pandemic, many states have put moratoriums in place to avoid families being shutoff in the middle of the crisis. However, even with extensions, many of these moratoriums are set to expire by the end of September, which would leave a little less than 35 million people without utilities. As the reporter notes, while the moratoriums prevented many families from having their utility shutoff, they were also only temporary, non-structural moves. While initially good to prevent already struggling families from being shutoff as stay-at-home orders tightened, with the continuation of the pandemic state authorities and representatives should have called for more structural and systemic solutions to the problem. Carbon Switch predicts as many as 76 million households will find themselves without power by October 1st. In any case, given no data is being collected on hand, many families may find themselves shutoff if the state in which the utility operates has 'imposed' voluntary moratoria.
Megan Leonhardt, "Nearly 35 million households will lose their utility shutoff protections over the next month", contributed by Briana Leone, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 28 August 2020, accessed 25 April 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/nearly-35-million-households-will-lose-their-utility-shutoff-protections-over-next-month
Critical Commentary
With the onset of the pandemic, many states have put moratoriums in place to avoid families being shutoff in the middle of the crisis. However, even with extensions, many of these moratoriums are set to expire by the end of September, which would leave a little less than 35 million people without utilities. As the reporter notes, while the moratoriums prevented many families from having their utility shutoff, they were also only temporary, non-structural moves. While initially good to prevent already struggling families from being shutoff as stay-at-home orders tightened, with the continuation of the pandemic state authorities and representatives should have called for more structural and systemic solutions to the problem. Carbon Switch predicts as many as 76 million households will find themselves without power by October 1st. In any case, given no data is being collected on hand, many families may find themselves shutoff if the state in which the utility operates has 'imposed' voluntary moratoria.