In testimony recently filed with the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) on behalf of the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) of Michigan, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the National Housing Trust, expert witness Roger Colton, a consultant on utility issues for low-income customers, lays out in detail what should be done to help get customers through the first winter following the start of the pandemic and why the current approach is flawed.
“That population which has the least ability to respond to the economic catastrophe caused by COVID-19 is the same population that is being hardest hit with the public health and economic consequences,” Colton writes. This message is particularly important now because the urgency around the threat to low-income households seems to have diminished.
Colton advocates that the MPSC overhaul assistance to customers by requiring utilities to implement the percentage-of-income payment plan and a number of other tools. Read more about this testimony on the CUB blog.