Powerful pandemic cost: $1.14 billion in unpaid utility bills

ALBANY — Pandemic-battered New Yorkers owe $1.14 billion in unpaid gas and electric bills, suggesting that the statewide moratorium on cut-offs will likely have to continue for the foreseeable future.

Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic and attendant job losses mean the state will likely have to adjust how it assists low-income New Yorkers with keeping their heat and lights on going forward.

“The depth of financial distress currently affecting more than a million residential energy consumers and uncounted numbers of water and telecommunications consumers is a strong argument that the moratorium must continue and that all stakeholders must arrive at a solution to provide some form of rate relief,” said Richard Berkley, executive director of the Public Utility Law Project of New York.

Berkley and others participated Tuesday in a web-based workshop from the state Public Service Department regarding rate relief for consumers in need.

Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Powerful-pandemic-cost-1-14-billion-in-unpaid-16012492.php
(Albany Times Union)