Regulators reject moratorium on cutoffs
State commission votes against 90-day stoppage extension on utility disconnects
Another call to extend help to residents suffering coronavirus related financial hardship has gone unanswered.
Florida’s Public Service Commission on Tuesday unanimously rejected a petition for a 90-day moratorium on utility disconnections for consumers affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
The petition, which sought an emergency rule change authorizing the moratorium for the state’s four major electric utilities, was submitted on Sept. 22 by two Duke Energy customers, Zoraida Santana and Jesse Moody, and the Florida chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a national advocacy group.
More than 700 consumers emailed the PSC expressing support for the moratorium.
Data submitted to the PSC by Florida Power & Light showed that 94,130 residential customers were 90 or more days past due in August, compared to 6,295 in August 2019. And 60,752 customers were past due by 60 days to 89 days in August, compared to 27,936 in August 2019. Combined, those customers were more than $50 million behind in August, compared to $4.2 million the previous year.
“These people should not be sacrificed in the interest of smoking out a few bad actors taking advantage of the system,” Zachariah Cosner of the organization Connected in Crisis told the commission via video link.
The suspension would have coincided with a national moratorium on evictions and foreclosures announced on Sept. 4 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an order that expires Dec. 31. Similar to the CDC moratorium, applicants would have been required to submit a sworn document attesting that their inability topay their power bill was a result of COVID-19-related financial hardship.
In justifying the eviction moratorium, the CDC argued that allowing people to remain in their homes is critical to keeping COVID-positive patients isolated and socially distanced.
The Florida petition before the PSC argued that cutting off electricity “amounts to an eviction” because homes without power are
essentially uninhabitable.
But the five-member commission rejected the petitioners’ arguments, agreeing with its analysts’ recommendations that the current situation does not pose “a danger to thepublichealth, safety or welfare” as state law requires for emergency rule changes.
Also, commissioners said they were satisfied that utilities are showing sufficient flexibility by inviting customers with past-due bills to work out payment plans and waiving late fees and reconnection fees.
In its response to the petition, FPL asserted that it had suspended disconnections since March 16 and, along with sister company Gulf Electric, made 4.2 million contacts to educate customers on energy efficiency, available aid programs and payment options.
In September, FPL announced plans to begin Oct. 1 disconnecting customers who fail to make arrangements to pay off past-due balances.
John Burnett, an FPL attorney, said a moratorium wouldn’t help past-due customers pay down their balances. “Eighty-five percent of customers who are more than 30 days past due don’t contact the company,” he said. “They typically don’t contact us until they get a disconnection notice.”
John Wahlen, spokesman for Tampa Electric, said that by allowing customers to continue accruing debt, a 90-day moratorium could allow their past-due balances to become unmanageable.
What’s next remains to be seen. Gov. Ron DeSantis could impose a moratorium by executive order, but lately he’s been removing assistance, such as the evictions moratorium he ordered from April 2 to Sept. 30, and restrictions like restaurant occupancy caps.
Mayra Cruz, a spokeswoman for the anti-poverty advocates Catalyst Miami, said after the meeting that shewas disappointed that the commission spent more time questioning representatives of the utilities than her or members of other advocacy groups that argued for the moratorium. “I’m very disappointed and obviously angry about the outcome,” Cruz said after the meeting. I don’t feel our message got through. They didn’t take the opportunity to ask us questions or follow-up.”
But commission chairman Gary F. Clark asked a follow-up question of at least two of the moratorium advocates: How would you suggest the utilities recoup income theywould lose if amoratoriumwas approved?
BrandenMarshall, spokesman for the organization Earthjustice, said the utility’s “shareholders could absorb some of that.”
Like many utilities, the four Florida companies hold monopoly status in their service areas — meaning they have no competition — along with the ability to seek rate adjustments as needed to ensure they turn a profit.
One form of assistance touted by FPL — a bill credit of up to $200 for customers who pay the balance of their past-due bills in full — isn’t much help to customers who don’t have the money to pay those past-due balances, Cruz said. FPLhas been directing those customers to their community’s LowIncomeHome Energy Assistance Programs, a federal funding source that provides up to $2,000 for eligible households, she said.
But qualifying for that assistance is time-consuming and cumbersome, Cruz said. Applicants must provide a long list of documents that include Social Security cards for all household members, driver licenses or state identification cards for all adults in the home, proof of income for all household members over the past 30 days, a signed Department of Economic Opportunity waiver allowing release of applicants’ confidential information and documentation of all other forms of federal assistance that the applicant is receiving. After the vote, Marshall said that while his organization was disappointed in the outcome, “We hope the commission and everyone else will hold the utilities accountable to their pledge to make disconnections ‘a lost resort.’”
FPL spokesman Christopher McGrath said after the meeting that “I don’t have specific numbers” of customers who have been disconnected since Oct. 1.
However, “FPL is taking a measured approach to issuing final notices,” he saidby email.“We are not sending final notices to all eligible customers at once. Instead, we’ve started with customers who have been past due longest that, in some cases, pre-date COVID-19 becoming widespread inMarch.”
He added, “For customerswho have both received a final notice and their disconnection data has come and gone, mostwere able to work with FPL to avoid being disconnected for nonpayment.”
Of customers who were disconnected, “most were reconnected within a day,” he said. “This means the vast majority of customers who have received a final notice and have passed the due date still remain in service.”