Access to energy and water utilities is essential for the health and wellbeing of all Americans. And yet, thousands of households in Virginia face utility disconnections every year, including during the hottest days of summer or coldest days in winter. Even drinking water and wastewater management systems require electricity to operate. We must leverage the clean energy transition currently underway in Virginia to address inequalities baked into our current system by improving protections for households from gas and electricity disconnections, modeling policy approaches taken by other southeastern states.¹ Ensuring access to energy services ensures that the lights are on, that clean water is available, and that waste management systems remain in operation for vulnerable households. We can achieve these ends through a coordinated policy effort that recognizes that all people have a right to these goods.

Virginia currently has among the weakest disconnection protections for electric and gas customers of any state in the southeast.² Although people with certified medical reasons may earn exemption from electricity disconnections, other households in the Commonwealth with outstanding electric bills – including those with children, elderly, and disabled residents – are vulnerable to having their power disconnected, even during weather extremes.³ Black and brown households are more likely to lose power than white households due to the enduring legacies of structural racism.⁴ Meanwhile, there is no statewide disconnection standard for gas or water utilities. When people do lose utility services, they often face additional fees related to the disconnection and reconnection as they try to resolve their accounts and have their essential services restored.

Virginia currently has among the weakest disconnection protections for electric and gas customers of any state in the southeast.

Utility disconnection policies vary among the 33 electric utilities and 8 gas utilities in Virginia, so Virginia residents are subject to very different disconnection policies based on their utility provider.⁵ During the state of emergency enacted by Governor Northam in response to COVID-19, Virginia established a limited disconnection moratorium which expires 60 days after the state of emergency ends on June 30, 2021. The state also addressed household inability to pay with a novel utility debt repayment program designed to help people resolve Covid-induced arrearages over time while maintaining electricity and gas services during the repayment period.⁶ Yet, the provision for payment plans does not apply to debt incurred outside of the circumstances of the pandemic. We must adapt the model approach taken while the state of emergency was in effect to secure the well-being of customers of electric and gas utilities over the long-term, and not merely during a time of global crisis.

Further, in February of 2021, the Virginia General Assembly recognized water as a human right and specifically stated that the state of Virginia recognizes that no household be “deprived of water because of inability to pay” and that disconnections are “contrary to promoting public health and welfare.”⁷ Though the resolution passed by the General Assembly recognizes the human right to water, there are no binding policies that specifically ensure water access following the end of the utility moratorium and in years to come. It is imperative to protect access to water services for our most vulnerable communities, as every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitation purposes in times of crisis and at times of peace.

We can address the lack of uniform disconnection policies across utilities in Virginia by establishing baseline standards for cooperative, municipal and investor-owned utilities to follow when households face electric or gas disconnections. By limiting the ability of utilities to disconnect households on a seasonal basis and during weather extremes, including increasingly frequent heatwaves and climate related disasters, or during other widespread and extended public emergencies, we can protect public health. By limiting the financial consequences related to late payments, non-payments, or disconnections and reconnections, we can make it easier for households to maintain access to essential energy services, or to restore them in the event of a disconnection. Finally, by addressing the overall burden that many households face in accessing these essential utilities, we can help ensure that energy and water services are affordable for more people.⁸

1 Lights out in the cold: Reforming utility shutoff practices as if human rights matter, Environmental and Climate Justice Program, NAACP (March 2017). See “Appendix B, Survey of state disconnection policies”. https://naacp.org/resources/lights-out-cold.

2 Ibid.

3 20VAC5-330-40. Limitations on service termination to residential customers. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title20/agency5/chapter330/section40.

4 Memmott, Trevor, Sanya Carley, Michelle Graff, and David M. Konisky. Sociodemographic disparities in energy insecurity among low-income households before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature Energy 6, no. 2 (2021): 186-193.

5 Public Utilities, Virginia Legal Aid Society, pg. 4 (January 4, 2019). https://www.valegalaid.org/files/E095B726-FCD8-81C1-17DC-A16C7ED73FFF/attachments/ C759DDF4-D872-42C1-B411-B6843D20A2F3/public-utilities.pdf.

6 Vogelsong, Sarah, Senate approves 12-month utility debt repayment plans with bipartisan support, Virginia Mercury (September 16, 2020). https://www.virginiamercury.com/blog-va/senate-approves-12-month-utility-debt-repayment-plans-with-bipartisan-support.

7 House Joint Resolution No. 538. (Number 4 and 8, respectively). https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+HJ538ER.

8 Energy infrastructure: Sources of inequities and policy solutions for improving community health and wellbeing, Community Action Partnership, the Regulatory Assistance Project, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Synapse Energy Economics (April 29, 2020). https://www.raponline.org/knowledge-center/energy-infrastructure-sources-of-inequities-and-policy-solutions-for-improving-community-health-and-wellbeing.