This brief was put together by several non-profit, advocating agencies for human rights. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the new precarious conditions many households have been thrust into, agencies like the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) and The Utility Reform Network (TURN), among...Read more
This piece from the organization Grounded in Philly provides resources and information for those seeking to gain ownership of a vacant lot that is privately owned and how to deal with unpaid debt left behind by the absent owner. After explaining what liens are, the page moves on to explore the...Read more
This article talks about the repercussions felt in New York as tropical storm Isaias hit the Northeast region. Discussions of payments made to and investments made by utilities question the nature of the improvements made as told by energy providers. Utilities also defend their strategies by...Read more
As a year from the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic comes to a close, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission is deciding to lift the moratorium on disconnection it had put in place to protect the Commonwealth's residents. This decision comes from pressures exerted by the utilities on...Read more
This article reports on the state of disconnections across the United States in March 2020. One of the major points of the article is that, although many states have suspended utility shut-offs during the pandemic (sometimes for an unspecified length of time) there is little data on whether...Read more
This article is another article that talks about governors investigating utilities' poor responses. That said, this article also mentions Connecticut and New York declaring states of emergency in order to speed up assistance to communities most hardly hit by the storm. That said, we should also...Read more
This article talks about the vulnerability of coal plants across the country. An energy generation market powered by Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is set to be at risk by 2022, coal fleet is now going to be down by October. The viable option seen by many in the south is to...Read more
The attached paper analyzes the creation of the uneven distribution of electricity throughout Eastern North Carolina, tracing the history of the energy distribution from the introduction of utilities to now. The author dives into the different organizational structures of energy utilities, how...Read more
This article discusses the effects of the utility shutoff moratorium as a policy (an emergency policy) that had no vision for long term pay back. I did not count the number of times the phrase "keeing the lights on" was repeated, but I should have. The article also describes how different...Read more
This article talks about the ways in which utilities in New Jersey have worked to increase storm resilience since hurricane Sandy. That said, even with $4 billion in investments made into grid systems little has improved, Sierra Green New Jersey Director Tiffel said. We can think about ways in...Read more