PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AFX) - Advocates for the poor are asking state regulators to ban utility companies from shutting off electricity on delinquent customers on days the temperature reaches 90 degrees, citing the deaths of more than 100 people in California during the recent heat wave.
The George Wiley Center, a Rhode Island social justice advocacy group, submitted the moratorium petition on Friday to the state Public Utilities Commission. Center advocates said they are concerned that shutoffs during warm weather days could lead to heat-related deaths among the poor, elderly and disabled -- many of whom can't afford their electricity bills.
'It's a cruel and inhumane punishment,' said Center Coordinator Henry Shelton. 'People, because of lack of money, are being punished.'
Tom Kogut, a spokesman for the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, which operates with the commission, said the center's petition will be considered at a future public meeting of the commission. He did not say when and declined further comment.
David Graves, a National Grid spokesman, said the company has not seen the petition and could not comment on it. But he said National Grid has a practice of not shutting off electricity for its residential customers during the winter months for the past several years.
State regulation prevents utility companies from shutting off utilities for people on a low-income home energy assistance federal program during a winter moratorium. Wiley Center organizer Julie Silvia said there should also be a moratorium in the summer.
She said without electricity, people suffer from heat exhaustion caused by a lack of working fans and air ventilation at home.
Silvia said electricity was disconnected for 6,742 Rhode Island households from April 15 to end of June, the most recent period figures were available. Of these households, 1,485 were poor, elderly or disabled customers on food stamps or the low-income home energy assistance program, she said.
More than 130 deaths in California were believed to be linked to the heat wave, in which temperatures reached the triple digits for two weeks. Most of the dead were elderly people, and some were found in homes without air conditioning.
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