The Connecticut regulatory agency, Public Utilities Regulation Authority (PURA), ordered a moratorium on stopping gas, electric, and water services to residential customers for non-payment on March 12, 2020. Connecticut is the last state with an energy payment moratorium. Now, energy companies Eversource and Avangrid are asking PURA to end the shutoff moratorium and permit them to turn off power to over 20,000 residents of Connecticut in the middle of August, following a record-breaking heat wave and before the onset of what is predicted to be an exceptionally cold winter.
More than 20,000 of the poorest families in Connecticut are now threatened with shutoffs that could last until November 1st when this year’s Winter Moratorium goes into effect. The Winter Moratorium may restore service for those families come November, but it requires residential customers of power and heat to know and apply to prevent utility shutoff during Connecticut’s coldest months. This would leave houses without heating during the Connecticut winter which can be killingly cold. Worse, if PURA lifts the shutoff moratorium, families that are already struggling to make ends meet will see their refrigerators turned off and food they can’t afford to replace will rot and life saving medicines such as insulin to expire. If another heat wave arrives before November, these families will be trapped in overheating homes. With functioning air conditioning, Connecticut averages one heat-related indoor death a year.
Eversource and Avangrid claim $171 million dollars in bills overdue by more than sixty days. Many of these residents will never be able to pay off the back bills, which can amount to over $2,000. “When people who have a $1,500 back bill think their service is going to be shut off, and they call the company and someone says, ‘If you pay $200 a month, we won’t shut you off,’ – in my experience, they’re gonna say, ‘Sure, I’ll pay the $200.’ They’re so relieved they won’t have their service shut off, but the reality is, they can’t afford it,” said Bonnie Roswig, an attorney at the Children’s Center for Advocacy, which provides legal services for low-income residents. That’s the goal. Energy prices are at all-time highs thanks to the imperialist war between US proxy Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Euro-American sanctions have interrupted the global oil and gas supply, which is highly reliant on imports from Russia, to try to bring the Russian state back into the orbit of Europe and NATO. To date, the sanctions have only managed to increase the causes of inflation and to increase energy costs. While Avangrid and Eversource are reaping untold profits from this imperialist war, they have the audacity to stand before the Connecticut regulators and beg poverty so they can squeeze another few million dollars from the most impoverished people in Connecticut.
What can you do?
If you’re in Connecticut, you need to talk to other residents. Keep an eye on the developing news. If PURA agrees to resume power shutoffs, you need to be prepared to help. Households with no power will need more food assistance—and food pantries around the state are already at a historically depleted level. You should talk to other radicals in your community and prepare for the crisis that appears to be developing.
PURA is a regulatory agency, which means it’s less susceptible to class power—that is, to marches and demonstrations—then, for example, elected officials like mayors, city councilors, and the state legislature. That doesn’t mean PURA will ignore pressure from the mobilized working classes. Marches are not likely to affect PURA, but pickets around their offices at 10 Franklin Square in New Britain won’t go unnoticed. Plan your actions now and exert pressure before PURA makes the decision to reinstate power shutoffs.
Only together, as the mobilized and active elements of the working classes, can we stop the monopolists at Avangrid and Eversource, who already prey on the poorest among us, from further exploiting the working people of Connecticut. Stand fast, and stand together, against the big bosses and their political agents!
