Energy companies are pressing the PUC to relax their moratorium on shutting off non-paying customers. Unpaid bills amount to $479 billion at the end of June. Utilities also blame the moratoriums for encouraging customers not to enter into agreements, where companies like PECO only had 2% of its customers with unpaid bills replied to efforts to regularize bills and enter into payment plans. In any case better plans should be enacted differently to address the struggles faced by many many families across the pandemic. Additionally, this push form the utilities have shown they tend not to safeguard the vulnerabilities of their customers but hold a business first mentality, which is damaging to many.
Andrew Maykuth, "Unpaid utility bills are soaring in the pandemic. Consumer advocates fear mass shutoffs loom", contributed by Briana Leone, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 24 August 2020, accessed 25 April 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/unpaid-utility-bills-are-soaring-pandemic-consumer-advocates-fear-mass-shutoffs-loom
Critical Commentary
Energy companies are pressing the PUC to relax their moratorium on shutting off non-paying customers. Unpaid bills amount to $479 billion at the end of June. Utilities also blame the moratoriums for encouraging customers not to enter into agreements, where companies like PECO only had 2% of its customers with unpaid bills replied to efforts to regularize bills and enter into payment plans. In any case better plans should be enacted differently to address the struggles faced by many many families across the pandemic. Additionally, this push form the utilities have shown they tend not to safeguard the vulnerabilities of their customers but hold a business first mentality, which is damaging to many.