New Report Calls for Utility Protections Amid Extreme Heat

July 16, 2024 — Press Release

Policymakers and regulators must make utility services more affordable and end disconnections in severe weather

WASHINGTON – 2023 was the world’s hottest year on record, by far, and the impacts of climate change promise continued extreme weather. Extreme heat and climate change affect all communities, but Black and Latino communities are most at risk of dangerous health impacts. A new report from the National Consumer Law Center examines the impacts of extreme heat on utility consumers and recommends immediate actions policymakers and regulators must take to safeguard utility services for under-resourced consumers facing extreme weather. 

“The confluence of extreme weather and increased utility rates underscores the need to ensure affordability of essential utility service year-round,” said Karen Lusson, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center and author of the report. “How state and federal policymakers and regulators respond to the threat of extreme heat and rising utility rates will have critical health and safety implications on financially struggling utility customers.”

Protecting Access to Essential Utility Service During Extreme Heat and Climate Change, written with support from and collaboration with the Center for Energy, Poverty, and Climate, outlines specific actions policymakers and regulators must take to address the unaffordability of, and need for continued access to, essential utility service during extreme weather and year-round.

“Currently, almost 60% of the U.S. population live in states with no summer shut-off protections,” said Mark Wolfe, co-Director of the Center for Energy Poverty and Climate, which funded the report. “No one’s life should be put at risk during extended heat waves because they were behind on their bill. Adequate shutoff protections are the least we can do to protect vulnerable families from the effects of extreme heat.”

Recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration confirms that unaffordability of essential utility service remains a problem for nearly 30% of the U.S. population, and that lower income households, households with children, renters, and families who identify as either Black or African American or as Hispanic or Latino reported higher rates of energy insecurity. 

Low-income utility customers face increasingly difficult decisions during extreme weather, often forgoing food, medicine, and other life essentials to pay their energy bills. Financially struggling utility customers often restrict their energy use and are hesitant to turn on air conditioning during extreme heat, out of fear of unaffordable utility bills.

The report identifies several recommendations for policymakers to: enact calendar-based utility shut-off moratoriums to ensure continued access to essential utility service during weather extremes; ensure utility rates are affordable for all through the implementation of percentage of income payment programs (PIPPs) and income-tiered discounts; revise antiquated credit and collection practices to ensure people are treated fairly when they can’t pay an electric bill; require utilities to file monthly arrearage, disconnection, and other data by zip code or census tract; and increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and weatherization programs. 

The report also looks at the 100-plus-year-old practice of disconnecting utility customers due to inability to pay and recommends it be replaced with enhanced, year-round protections from disconnection for vulnerable populations, including older adults, households with children, and medically compromised customers.

“As extreme heat intensifies, policymakers and regulators need to take immediate action to address unaffordable electric and gas utility rates and protect vulnerable households from the antiquated practice of disconnecting customers, which punishes people for being poor,” said Lusson. 

Related Resources

• Community Solar: Expanding Access and Safeguarding Low-Income Families, Feb. 26, 2024
• Protecting Seriously Ill Consumers from Utility Disconnections: What States Can Do to Save Lives Now, Sept. 28, 2022

The Center for Energy Poverty and Climate (CEPC) is a nonprofit organization that is creating a platform for policymakers to engage directly with one another to share best practices and lessons learned, brainstorm solutions to difficult problems, and find innovative ways to braid funds and leverage programs to achieve net zero.