Press Release: The Center for Biological Diversity and BailoutWatch released Powerless in the Pandemic, a report showing that some of the nation’s top utilities received a collective $1.25 billion from last year’s government bailouts while shutting off families’ electric service nearly 1 million times.
The report shows that utilities wielded political power to secure beneficial tax-code changes in the CARES Act but defied calls to grant their own customers temporary relief. Instead, 16 utilities suspended or canceled electric service to nearly 1 million households between February 2020 and June 2021, leaving people without hot water, refrigeration, air conditioning and medical devices.
“It’s appalling that utility companies cut power to countless families throughout the pandemic while raking in taxpayer bailout money,” said Jean Su, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s energy justice program. “This greedy, heartless practice hurts low-wealth communities and communities of color most of all. It needs to stop. Complicit state regulators who fail to make shutoff data public should stop cowering and start shedding light on utilities’ bad behavior.”
Other key findings:
