As the coronavirus pandemic raged (well, first raged, since it continues to do so), utility companies across the country got a bailout. Through the CARES Act, the federal government distributed a collective $1.25 billion of taxpayer money to a handful of gas and electric companies to help them keep the lights on through a challenging time. Those companies did not extend the same generosity to their customers. According to a new report from the Center for Biological Diversity and BailoutWatch, utility companies cut the lights on more than 1 million households in the midst of the pandemic, despite receiving more than enough bailout money to forgive late payments many times over.
The report looked at data from 16 utility companies operating in 17 states and found that 990,234 households had their power cut off between February 2020 and June 2021 — and odds are the figures are much higher than that nationwide. Forgiving late payments from customers who were ordered to shelter in place and left unable to work would have cost just 8.5% of the total bailout funding made available to these firms. While some states mandated that utility companies suspend shutdowns for a period and some companies even took it upon themselves to offer extensions to customers who were unable to pay, the forgiveness ended long before the pandemic did. By summer 2020, gas and electric firms started switching off the power for people who were behind on payments.
