PROVIDENCE, R.I.
Groups storm utility hearing demanding: 'No shutoffs!'
By Michael Shaw
Providence, R.I.
On Oct. 11 Rhode Island anti-poverty groups invaded the
offices of the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) to demand
an immediate change in shutoff policies for utility customers
who can't pay their bills.
The Peoples' Utility Fairness Coalition organized the
action. The coalition includes ACORN, R.I. Gray Panthers,
Coalition for Consumer Justice, Parents for Progress, United
Workers' Committee, George Wiley Center and National Peoples'
Campaign.
As winter approaches and the economic downturn hits more
workers, approximately 7,200 households in this small New
England state are scheduled to have their utilities shut off.
These distressed families must cough up from 50 to 100 percent
of their back bill to be reinstated.
Fed up with being ignored since Oct. 7, 2000, when the Wiley
Center petitioned the R.I. Division of Public Utilities to hold
hearings concerning the antiquated shutoff rules now in effect,
Oct. 11 became the date for confrontation with the PUC and its
greed-based barriers to basic human needs.
The goal of the intervention was to convince the members of
the Public Utilities Commission to immediately adopt, on an
interim basis, the coalition's recommendations for post-shutoff
rules. These proposed rules embody a graduated forgiveness
program like those already in effect in several states, so that
low-income persons can reasonably meet their financial
obligations by paying 10 percent of their back bills.
The multinational gathering of several dozen outraged
petitioners began with a rally outside the PUC offices on
Jefferson Boulevard. Then activists stormed into the building
and headed for a room where the three PUC commissioners were
holding a hearing on long-distance regulation.
James Lanni, assistant administrator for operations and
consumer affairs, prevented the group from entering this
hearing. The activists would not be put off, however, and
forced Lanni to a separate hearing room where they vented their
frustration and personal testimonies in front of the
stonewalling bureaucrat.
One Latino mother shouted that her heat has been shut off
for months and that her four children are suffering health
problems as a result. "Some utility's corporate profits are not
as important as this woman's four kids. It's getting cold!"
another woman screamed at Lanni.
At first Lanni pleaded to the group that there was no way
the commissioners could meet with them that day. However, he
caved in when the angry crowd threatened to disrupt the hearing
in progress. Lanni promised that the activists could meet with
one or more of the commissioners later that day at 4 p.m.
At that meeting Commissioner Kate Racine agreed to a special
hearing on the shutoff issue to be held Oct. 23.
Wiley Center leader Henry Shelton said that at that hearing
the coalition will not merely demand that its progressive plan
for shutoffs be implemented. It will also demand that the 7,200
R.I. households without utilities have their power restored
immediately, before the cold of late fall sets in.
Reprinted from the Oct. 25, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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