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Valerie Yurk from The Guardian reports:

Forty states lack mandates to fully protect citizens from electricity, gas and water disconnections as leniency measures to pay bills expire, making Americans affected by the economic downturn vulnerable to one of the hottest summers on record and the continued spread of the coronavirus, according to a report by Senate Democrats.

Valerie Yurk
(@valerie_yurk)

Breaking: Most states are not protecting Americans from public service outages, according to the Senate Democrats report, which means:

– There is no clean water to wash your hands during a pandemic
– No air conditioning in one of the hottest summers on record
– No one knows when utilities will turn back on

July 23, 2020

States that do not offer protection for their residents include Texas and other southern states that have seen an increase in coronavirus cases in recent weeks. Most states only partially protect citizens from utility outages, which means that utility companies have voluntarily agreed to suspend disconnections, but are under no obligation to do so.

According to the report, some utility moratoriums do not apply to utilities, which, in Ohio, account for 70% of residential water sources.

Greer Ryan, an energy policy analyst at the Center for Biological Diversity, said this particularly affects communities of color, who were not only more vulnerable to insecurity in public services before the pandemic, but also more likely to contract Covid-19 and suffer the effects of increased temperatures

“Most of the people who have their utilities disconnected don’t know when they will work again,” Ryan said. “Add that to the stress of the economic crisis, this is more horrible for families.”

Senator Tom carper, the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, urges Congress to consider offering financial assistance to those struggling with utility bills due to unemployment or illness, while requiring that public services remain. connected during the COVID-19 crisis. More than 830 organizations, 113 members of Congress, and hundreds of thousands of people have joined Carper’s call.

“I would ask my colleagues to imagine what it is like to control fever without access to air conditioning on a 100 degree day. I would ask my colleagues to imagine what it is like to go without running water at a time when they encourage us to wash our hands with soap and clean water to slow the spread of this deadly virulent disease, ”said Carper. “It is not just about guaranteeing a fair and basic quality of life in our country, but it is also a public health imperative.”