February 13, 2023

Source: Center for Biological Diversity, Energy and Policy Institute, BailoutWatch

The epidemic of utilities shutting off people’s electric and gas service for nonpayment has continued unabated in the months since earlier Powerless in the Pandemic publications, which tracked utility disconnections and corporate profits since COVID-19 began. Utilities shut off power to households an estimated 4.2 million times in the first 10 months of 2022.* The harm is real and self-evident, as
are the solutions. Yet utility companies are still depriving U.S. households of power and heat millions of times a year while returning billions to their shareholders and executives.

The seriousness of the problem was made plain by the late December superstorm that battered the United States. Frozen gas lines and downed power infrastructure led to at least 60 fatalities and left millions of people unsafe, without power and heat — a situation that distributed renewable power generation and storage, along with a grid that moves clean electricity more efficiently, could have alleviated.

Read the full report: Powerless in the US — Report