In Kansas, Colorado, Mississippi, and Iowa, state-mandated emergency bans on disconnections have been lifted. And some states -- including hotspots Georgia, Alabama and Florida -- never imposed governor-mandated moratoria on shutoffs, leaving public utility commissions, municipalities, small companies and rural cooperatives to decide whether to suspend or enforce disconnection policies.
A list by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners detailing state responses to the pandemic shows statewide freezes on disconnections by gas, electricity and water providers, remain in some states, including California, Maryland, Michigan, Virginia, Alaska, Hawaii and Washington, DC. Some utility and energy companies across the country have voluntarily suspended disconnections on their own.
But rising concern over shutoffs comes with millions of Americans unemployed -- and the expiration of a generous federal unemployment benefit looming at the end of July, even as the resurgence of infections is hampering efforts to return more people to work.
Disconnections a form of 'systemic environmental injustice' in Georgia
In Georgia, which has an upward trend in average new daily cases of coronavirus, at least 26 electric, gas and water service providers have resumed disconnections for nonpayment during the pandemic, according to a CNN count. The companies serve hundreds of thousands of customers.
Georgia Power, which has more than 2.5 million customers, said it will resume disconnections July 15.
One Georgia-based advocacy group, the New Georgia Project Black + Green Agenda, said shutoffs disproportionately impact communities of color.
"The disconnection of Black, Brown and poor residents' utilities in the state of Georgia is a form of systemic environmental injustice," said Valerie Hill Rawls, director of the initiative, which was formed earlier this year to educate Blacks in rural counties and those living in the "Black Belt" region of the state about environmental injustice and coronavirus. "This will have a devastating effect on those who have been impacted the hardest by Covid-19, loss of wages and now the potential loss of access to gas and electricity," Rawls said.
She is also concerned sweltering heat in the summer months, and the increased need for additional cooling, water and medical equipment respiratory illnesses, could exacerbate the issue of utility disconnections even further.
"So it won't just be the day-to-day need to turn on your lights or your stove for food for cooking, it's actually going to drill down to basic health concerns from the heat that's upon us," Rawls said.
The Black + Green Agenda is one of at least 30 groups in the state that sent a letter to the Georgia Public Service Commission with concerns over its decision to allow shut offs to resume.
'Unpaid utilities bills ultimately will result in higher rates for all customers'
The George Public Service Commission, which imposed a moratorium on shutoffs by natural
