Groups call for stop to electricity cutoffs in Tennessee Valley due to pandemic

More than a dozen organizations in Tennessee and Alabama have called on the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association (TVPPA) to urge its member utilities to immediately halt service disconnection and late fees for families during the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter to the association last Friday, 15 organizations said: “In accordance with the principles of public power, TVPPA members have a duty to protect customers by suspending disconnections and waiving late fees during a national crisis, and to reinstate service to those who have recently had their power disconnected.”

TVPPA’s members include the electric cooperatives and municipal electric utilities who serve 9 million people across seven states in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s service area. In the letter, the groups identified five of TVPPA’s large utilities that had taken these kinds of actions to protect their customers, adding that many TVPPA members may still be charging customers late fees and cutting off service for non-payment.

“Loving our neighbor in this moment is ensuring that our neighbors have access to basic utilities,” said Reverend Michael Malcom, Executive Director of Alabama Interfaith Power and Light. “We call on TVPPA to recommend measures that ensure all citizens in the TVA footprint will have access to power throughout this crisis.”

TVA has authorized deferred wholesale power payments in its service area, according to the groups’ letter, and increased federal funding to help low-income households with energy bills was included in the recent federal stimulus package. TVPPA members should not cut off service or add late fees onto the bills of families who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in dire economic straits for the foreseeable future.

A website tracking how different electric cooperatives and municipal utilities are responding was developed by Appalachian Voices. The Energy and Policy Institute is also compiling a national dataset of utilities’ responses around the U.S.

In an email response from TVPPA, the signers were told that the association could not take action to recommend shutoff moratoriums without intruding on the “local control” of public utilities.

“Unfortunately, while some investor-owned utility associations have already implemented no-shutoff policies system wide, many of TVPPA’s members have yet to adopt these protections for residents,” said Appalachian Voices Tennessee Campaign Coordinator, Bri Knisley. “Our public power utilities should be at the forefront of this effort, rather than waiting for government mandates. We need groups like TVPPA to recognize the crucial need for leadership in this critical time.”

###

Groups signed by March 27:

Bill Moll, Conservation Chair, The Tennessee Chapter of Sierra Club

Daniel Tait, Chief Operations Officer, Energy Alabama

Michael Hansen, Executive Director, Gasp

Brianna Knisley, Tennessee Campaign Coordinator, Appalachian Voices

Amanda Garcia, Managing Attorney, Tennessee Office of Southern Environmental Law Center

Shiva Patel, Energy Justice Campaigner, Center for Biological Diversity

Ann League, Executive Director, Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment

Cindy Lowry, Executive Director, Alabama Rivers Alliance

Rev Michael Malcom, Executive Director, Alabama Interfaith Power and Light

Jessica Vosburgh, Executive & Legal Director, Adelante Alabama Worker Center

Duffy-Marie Arnoult & Vance LaVelle, Co-Chairs, The Climate Reality Project: Memphis and
Mid-South Regional Chapter

Tonia Brookman, Director, Woodland Community Land Trust

Rev. Jim Sessions, Interfaith Worker Justice of East Tennessee

Daniel Joranko, Convener, Climate Nashville Coalition & Coordinator, Tennessee Interfaith
Power and Light

Eli Stanfield, Co-Chair, Jobs with Justice of East Tennessee

Groups signed on subsequently:

Barbara Hickey, Chair, Democratic Socialists of America, Knoxville Area Chapter

John Stewart, member, Church of the Savior, UCC

Robyn Hyden, Executive Director, Alabama Arise

Shay Farley, Interim Deputy Policy Officer for the Southeast, SPLC Action Fund

Rev. Ann Cover, Chairperson, Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church Creation Care Ministry