From the ArcaMax Publishing, Business News Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/businessnews/s-367867-236485
WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Utility companies across the United States are
more often turning power off to customers who cannot pay bills,
industry figures show.
With gas prices rising and the unemployment rate at 5.5 percent, the
shutoffs have begun to affect moderately well-off customers, USA
Today reported Tuesday.
Eight percent of households with incomes between $33,500 and $55,000
have had their electricity shut off this year due to non-payment, the
National Energy Assistance Directors' Association said.
"It's hitting people in the suburbs with two cars and two kids," NEADA
Executive Director Mark Wolfe told USA Today.
Utilities also say their cutoff rates have risen.
PPL Electric Utilities in Pennsylvania shut off power to 7,054
customers from January through April a cutoff rate 168 percent higher
than in the same months of 2007, the newspaper reported.
Utility companies frequently restore power after a few days, when
customers agree to a payment plan.
A federal program, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program is
supposed to help, but is out of funds, having provided $2.5 billion in
assistance in fiscal 2008, the report said.