As millions of voters around the country anxiously wait to see if their elected representatives will deliver much-needed additional Covid-19-era aid heading into what promises to be a cold and expensive winter as utility bills come due, they do so juggling the competing worry over those that have already piled out under Corona-virus moratoriums expiring around the country. With tens of millions of Americans either temporarily confined to home, or looking at the prospect of working remotely for the forseeable future, electric bills have already been spiking all over the U.S., from urban apartment dwellers to rural communities dependant on their smart phones and internet for connections to the outside world.
Creating a new crisis within the broader crisis that Covid has caused for the most vulnerable among us – from isolated elderly recipients to children stuck in the same aforementioned limbo during the fall home-schooling season – according to US News, “about a quarter of U.S. households pay a much larger share of their income on energy bills than is standard, and Detroit is among the cities that see an especially large amount of families facing this issue, according to a report released on Thursday by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Researchers at the nonprofit, which works to advance energy efficiency policies and programs, found that two-thirds of low-income households have high energy burdens...Families of color also see a much larger burden than white families, according to the report. Native American households spend 45% more of their income on energy costs than white households, while Black households spend 43% more and Hispanic households spend 20% more. Additionally, low-income households on average spend about 8% of their income on energy costs, while households with higher incomes only spend 2.3% on utilities…With the coronavirus pandemic upending the economy and placing an even higher financial burden on families across the country, the time is now for policymakers to take action on this problem.”
Still, election-year gridlock in Washington has thus far prohibited Congress from acting to get a new round of relief out to these struggling tax payers, bringing the necessity of wide-spread energy assistance into greater focus as utilities like the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), who provides electricity to Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and North Carolina, has sounded the alarm that “more people than ever before are now eligible for income-based assistance programs, but accessing them can be a real challenge for already overwhelmed families.”
Seeking to act internally, TVA EnergyRight partnered over the summer with local utilities throughout the South to help spread word to struggling households throughout the valley that $900 million in additional LIHEAP assistance was available, noting that while “the federal program’s focus, traditionally, has been on families with low incomes who bear a high energy burden—that is, who pay a high portion of household income toward their monthly power bills. However, during this unprecedented time, rules for eligibility are expected to be relaxed to enable more people to qualify for assistance.”
Designing a county-by-county database mapping out all available LIHEAP referral locations across the seven states it serves, TVA executive vice president and chief external relations officer Jeannette Mills explained that “this resource is being promoted across the Valley to empower more families with the knowledge that there may be financial assistance out there for them. Public power means doing what’s right for the people we serve, so we’re pleased to partner with local power companies to help get their customers to the right place to apply for these federal funds.”
Elsewhere, the news was grimmer, with the Central Arkansas Development Council announcing the unwelcome news that their LIHEAP Utility and CARES Assistance Programs were being shuttered “immediately due to depletion of funds” after $8.2 million had been spent over the summer after the CADC had increased the average single-family benefit from $500 to $1500 amid the Covid emergency. Elaborating on the dire circumstances both his office and the families it served were facing with constantly increasing power bills and requests for assistance, CADC’s Todd Anderson (explained) that “with those added amounts, we had triple the amount we could pay out to customers… In previous years we would pay enough for the utility bills to be paid, but this year we’ve been able to pay people’s past due notices, as well as put credit on people’s bills reasoned that after serving approximately 14,000 applicants – vs. the usual 10,000 – we contacted the state to say we are out of funds. Oftentimes the state can find additional money if there are, for example, other agencies that don’t need the amount of funding they have received. That’s why we have suspended the program, not closed it. Normally, it runs until September 30, and if we’re able to secure more funding we will open it back up.”
Fear on a national level of similar impending shut-offs were so profound that TIME Magazine ran a feature in their September issue, spotlighting the reality that “or people who lost jobs or income during the pandemic, life has been a series of terrifying deadlines. There was July 24, the end of a federal eviction moratorium from government-backed housing, which had protected about one-third of renters. There was July 30, when a program providing an extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits expired, reducing the incomes of tens of millions of Americans. Now, the beginning of September looms as yet another deadline as utility companies resume cutting power to customers who have fallen behind on their bills. In some states, moratoriums preventing them from doing so are ending, and in other states, utility company pledges to keep customers connected are winding down. Residents in Ohio, Florida, Maryland, Indiana, and Illinois are all at risk of shutoffs in early September; shutoffs can resume in late September or October in North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.”
In Missouri, the prospects for people sitting in a similar spot were looking brighter than their neighbors next door after the Ozark Radio News announced that “More people can now get help with their cooling bills this year. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)’s Summer Energy Crisis Intervention Program (ECIP) income eligibility range has been increased to 150% of the federal poverty level as of September 1. That means a family of four can make a maximum of $39,300 per year, or $3,275 per month, and receive assistance. The maximum amount of assistance a household can receive is $600, and the amount received is based on how much the family owes to avoid having their utilities shut off.”
In Illinois, a similar rush of relief overcame struggling households who received news from some of the state’s biggest utilities that they had voluntarily extended a disconnection moratorium into winter, with the Illinois Commerce Commission highlighting a collective that included Ameren Illinois, Aqua Illinois, Illinois American Water, Commonwealth Edison, People Gas and North Shore gas, Utility Services of Illinois, and MidAmerican and Nicor Gas and Liberty Utilities, who both pushed their moratorium out even farther to March 2021.
Sources:
https://www.eldoradonews.com/news/2020/sep/02/cadc-suspends-liheap-due-fund-depletion/
https://week.com/2020/09/22/state-regulated-utility-moratorium-extended-through-winter-2021/
Reporting by J.B.